Crackdown douses riot firestorm

PARIS - The two-week firestorm of violence by gangs of youths in France subsided yesterday, as arrests, exhaustion and boredom took their toll.

A state of emergency and new measures to help poor suburbs and alienated youth, announced by a panicky Government on Monday, may also have had some effect.

Some police intelligence sources and social workers warned that yesterday's relative calm - "only" 617 cars burned, compared with 933 the night before - might yet prove to be just a lull.

Messages were found on internet sites calling for a concerted attack by suburban gangs on the centre of Paris at the weekend.

The threat to the capital is not yet being taken seriously.

On the whole, the riots seem to be following the pattern of similar, but smaller, outbreaks in poor suburbs over the last 10 years.

The ferocity of the violence began to slow in the Paris area several days ago. Copycat events in provincial towns and cities are now also playing themselves out, leaving a trail of more than 6000 burned cars, and scores of schools and factories ravaged by fire.

The Interior Ministry attributed the falloff to the large number of arrests - more than 1100 - and the exhaustion of the rioters.

French television and radio stations also agreed several days ago to concentrate their coverage on the consequences of the violence, rather than showing endless spectacular footage of burning cars.

Officials believe this has helped to dampen the "spirit of competition" that spread the violence from northeast Paris to poor districts of towns in every corner of France in the last two weeks.

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin will also claim success for his controversial package of repressive and aid measures.

A state of emergency, using a forgotten 50-year-old law, took effect at midnight on Tuesday. In fact only one town - Amiens in the Somme - has so far taken advantage of the curfew permitted by the law.

The aid package restores cuts in financial support to poor suburbs imposed in recent years and promises a job or apprenticeship to every youngster in France's 750 "sensitive" districts (where youth unemployment can reach 40 per cent).

Most of the rioters are believed to be aged between 15 and 21, with some as young as 10.

Almost all those arrested have criminal records and most are believed to belong to the violent criminal minority of the poor suburbs surrounding French cities.

Many - but not all - come from Arab immigrant families. Others hail from Africa. There is also a sprinkling of East and Southern Europeans.

- INDEPENDENT