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Paris braces for holiday unrest

Police ban gatherings as messages circulate

Saturday, November 12, 2005; Posted: 1:05 a.m. EST (06:05 GMT)

People gather Friday at the "Peace Wall" near the Paris Military School.

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PARIS, France (Reuters) -- French security forces are braced for possible unrest in the capital on Saturday, deploying thousands of police and imposing a weekend ban on gatherings that could threaten trouble.

By 2 a.m. local time (0100 GMT) Saturday, 309 vehicles were burned and 119 people arrested, against 237 vehicles burned and 120 people arrested at the same time the previous night. Two shops in Rambouillet, a town southwest of Paris, were also destroyed.

Precautions were adopted for the Armistice Day weekend because of messages circulating on Internet sites and by text messages calling for violence in the capital, police said.

Central Paris has largely escaped more than two weeks of violence across France that peaked last Sunday but has fallen in intensity since President Jacques Chirac's government announced emergency measures on Tuesday including curfews.

The unrest has mainly hit poor suburbs around main towns and cities as youths who complain of high unemployment, racism and lack of opportunities have attacked property and torched thousands of cars.

In a 16th consecutive night of disturbances a primary school was attacked in Savigny-Le-Temple southeast of Paris and its creche destroyed and around 30 people attacked a transformer in Amiens, plunging the north of the town into darkness, police said.

"Things are slightly worse this evening compared to yesterday," a police spokesman said, adding that the slight increase in violence was due to events in the regions rather than around Paris.

Fire bombs

In the town of Carpentras in the south of France a person on a scooter threw two fire bombs at a mosque before fleeing, police said. People inside the mosque witnessed the attack, though there was little damage and no one was hurt.

"We don't know if it was a racist act or an act of provocation," police said.

The presidency said in a statement it "totally condemned" the attack and expressed solidarity with the Muslim community in the town. The prime minister's office issued a separate statement condemning the attack.

Police said the Paris ban would run from 10 a.m. (0900 GMT) on Saturday to 8 a.m. (0700 GMT) on Sunday. The city center is expected to be quieter than normal for the holiday weekend marking the end of World War One on Nov. 11, 1918.

"This is not about preventing people from walking around Paris ... or visiting the city ... It is to allow ordinary people to go about their business that police need the power to arrest trouble makers," Paris police chief Pierre Mutz told France Info radio.

Some 200-300 residents of riot-torn suburbs staged a peace vigil by the Eiffel Tower on Friday, calling for an end to violence and urging the government to listen to the angry youths. Fewer people showed up than expected.

Protesters held up banners declaring "Yes to peace" and "No to violence." "I am against the violence but I think the government must react to the poverty in the suburbs," said Adama Drame, a 24-year-old Frenchman of African origin.

Chirac and the government have been heavily criticised over their handling of the crisis. But an opinion poll carried out by the BVA research group on Nov. 4-5, and published on Saturday, showed 56 percent of French people approved of Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy's tough actions.