Hooded youths hijacked and burnt two buses in suburbs of Paris overnight, officials said on Thursday, amid fears of a repeat of the urban riots that shook France a year ago.
PARIS: Hooded youths hijacked and burnt two buses in suburbs of Paris overnight, officials said on Thursday, amid fears of a repeat of the urban riots that shook France a year ago.
The Paris region transport service RAPT said a dozen men, five carrying handguns, forced the driver and passengers off a bus in the northeastern suburb of Bagnolet at around 1 am on Thursday. "Then they stole the bus, drove it a short distance away and set fire to it," an RATP spokesman said. No one was hurt.
The incident occurred a day before the anniversary of riots last year that shook the suburbs of Paris and several other French cities. Last year's violence began in Seine-Saint-Denis, the disadvantaged, high-immigrant department where Bagnolet is situated.
On Wednesday night hooded youths set fire to a bus in the western suburb of Nanterre, leaving passengers scrambling to escape, firemen and police said.
The bus, which travels past several poor neighbourhoods, was boarded by about a dozen youths, who threw an inflammable liquid inside, lit it and fled.
"There were at least 10 passengers on board, who only just had enough time to get out. Thankfully there was nobody with any handicaps on board or it could have ended badly," said a police officer.
In the department of Essonne, south of Paris, the local public transport network, TICE, said on Wednesday night it was suspending all night bus services on 17 routes because of "a series of minor incidents".
"The service will stop at nightfall and avoid sensitive areas, as we did last year for one month," TICE head Stephane Beaudet said.
There was another "minor incident" on Wednesday night at the Grande Borne housing estate in Essonne, when youths threw stones at a police vehicle and private cars. The violence was soon quashed by the arrival of a large contingent of police.
On Sunday, a bus had been burnt in the same area. Tension has been on the rise in the suburbs in recent weeks, with police complaining of being ambushed and youths complaining of increased spot checks by officers.
Youth burned more than 10,000 cars and damaged 300 buildings with Molotov cocktails in three weeks of violence that began on October 27, 2005.
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