TROUBLED FRENCH DISTRICT IN NORTH ENGULFS BY RIOT

PARIS, France - The riot in the northern city of Amiens , which the local mayor has linked to rising social tension against a backdrop of a deteriorating economy, cast a shadow over Hollande’s celebration of 100 days since he was elected.
Dozens of young men rioted in northern France after weeks of tensions, pulling drivers from their cars and stealing the vehicles, and burning a school and a youth centre.
The police department in Amiens says at least 16 officers were hurt by the time the riot ended Tuesday, some by buckshot.

• At the height of the confrontation, 150 officers — both local and federal riot police faced off against the young men throughout the neighbourhood. There were no arrests.
• “The confrontations were very, very violent,” Amiens Mayor Gilles Dumailly told the French television network BFM. Dumailly said tensions had been building for a number of weeks between police and the impoverished residents, whom he described as “people who are in some difficulty.”
• Police in Amiens said the riot involved about a hundred young men and began around 9pm Monday, ending around 4am after federal reinforcements arrived. It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the unrest, but there had been smaller confrontations with police over the past week, including one involving a weekend traffic stop that some local residents thought was unnecessarily violent.

In the mean time, French President Francois Hollande promised a tough response to a riot that devastated a deprived neighbourhood in the northern city of Amiens overnight.
“The state will mobilise all its means to combat these violent acts,” Hollande said after a night of unrest that left 16 police officers injured.

Source: Agency