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French officials fear young rioters becoming organized

Nearly 900 vehicles were torched and 250-plus people arrested yesterday as French authorities feared those behind the country's worst rioting for decades -- now well into its second week -- were becoming organized.

Deprived suburbs with large immigrant populations on the fringes of Paris were again the scene of the worst of the rampages, which basically took the form of hit-and-run arson attacks.

But in a developing phenomenon that has authorities worried, violence also flared in other cities around the country -- Lille and Rouen in the north, Rennes in the west, and Toulouse, Pau and Marseille in the south.

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy and other officials said they believed the gangs of hooded youths responsible were showing signs of organization, and were urging copycat acts via Internet blogs.

There were concerns over the fact the unrest was concentrated in neighborhoods with Muslim immigrants from France's former Arab and African colonial territories, a small proportion of whom have turned to radical Islam in the past few years.

France has Europe's biggest Muslim population, estimated at more than 5 million, or nearly 10 percent of its total inhabitants.

Although police officials have said there was no sign of external forces orchestrating the riots, Paris prosecutor general Yves Bot told Europe 1 radio yesterday there was "organized violence," but did not say by whom.

"If I could give an exact answer, those people would already be under arrest," Bot said. "But we can see organized actions, a strategy."

He said 897 vehicles had been burnt overnight around the country on Friday, including 656 in the Paris region.

A total of 253 people were detained for questioning, some of them minors caught with fire-bombs, police said.

Scores of people were evacuated overnight from two apartment blocks in a northern Paris suburb after dozens of cars were set alight in an underground garage.

Two textile warehouses and a car showroom were also torched to the northeast of the city.

Young men could be seen talking into mobile telephones as they ran around suburbs individually or in small groups while riot police patrols drove by.

Rather than attack police, as they had early in the riots, many youths now opted instead to run away after lighting fires on cars and in shops, although some bottles, stones and gasoline bombs were still thrown at firemen.

The violence began on Oct. 27, sparked by the electrocution of two youths of African and Arab origins in the suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois after they hid from police in an electrical relay station.

But since then it has become a challenge to the authority of the government and a protest against the dismal economic prospects, rampant discrimination and heavy-handed policing that the youth in the suburbs suffer.

Early yesterday Sarkozy made a surprise visit to a police command center west of Paris, and told officers: "Arrests -- that's the key."
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