Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Bus arson in France recalls unrest after deaths year ago

Extra police are deployed in case of violence.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published October 28, 2006

CLICHY-SOUS-BOIS, France - Police deployed 4,000 reinforcements as marauding youths torched at least two public buses Friday, the anniversary of the deaths of two teenagers that ignited weeks of riots in largely immigrant housing projects across France.

After the buses were burned in Le Blanc-Mesnil, Paris' transport authority curtailed bus service in the Seine-Saint-Denis region north of the capital, which is home to thousands of immigrants and their French-born children.

Flaming cars became a symbol of the rioting last year, which jolted France into recognizing a failure to give equal opportunities to many minorities - especially those of Arab and black African origin - and the country's 5-million-strong Muslim population.

The national police said 50 units of extra officers and riot police - or about 4,000 men - were deployed across the country to brace for a possible resurgence of violence.

The outburst of anger at the accidental deaths of the two teens - who were electrocuted in a power substation in Clichy-sous-Bois while hiding from police on Oct. 27, 2005 - grew into a broader challenge of the French state.

Several hundred people marched silently Friday through Clichy-sous-Bois, northeast of Paris, in honor of Zyed Benna, 17, and Bouna Traore, 15.

[Last modified October 28, 2006, 00:34:32]