France fears new wave of unrest after Amiens riot

The French authorities promised to clamp down on a new wave of civil unrest on Tuesday after one of the most deprived suburbs in the country descended into "urban guerrilla warfare".

On the eve of Francois Hollande's 100th day in power, gangs of youths in the northern city of Amiens shot at police, set fire to a primary school and a sports centre and destroyed a police station.

More than 100 rioters set up barricades of burning dustbins, burned dozens of cars and injured motorists whose vehicles they stole during the unrest. It was the worst such scenes in France since the country was torn by three weeks of unrest in 2005.

Up to 150 police were called to the troubled Amiens-Nord suburb of a city better known for its university and stunning 13th century Gothic cathedral. During three hours of running battles, they used tear gas and rubber bullets to quell the unrest, suffering injuries caused by buckshot, fireworks and other projectiles. Sixteen policemen were injured. "We found 12mm cartridges, so they certainly used live bullets," said Marc Richez of the Synergie Officiers police union.

Gilles Demailly, the Socialist mayor of Amiens, said he had encountered a "scene of desolation" in the northern quarter of the city.

"There have been regular incidents here but it has been years since we've known a night as violent as this with so much damage done," he said. The cost of repairing the destruction would run into "millions", he added.

The clashes followed scuffles 24 hours earlier provoked by the arrest of a man for dangerous driving. The incident was seen as insensitive, coming as many residents of the neighbourhood were attending a wake for a local 20 year-old who had died in a motorcycle accident.

Amiens-Nord is one of 15 "priority zones" identified as needing extra policing by the Socialist government. Countering Right-wing claims he is too soft on crime, Hollande said his government would do everything necessary to impose order, including increasing resources for the police and gendarmerie in the next budget.

"Security is not just a priority but an obligation," he said.

French police have long warned that tensions remain explosive in France's high-immigrant rundown suburbs, where youth unemployment often tops 40% and a sense of racial discrimination and marginalisation periodically spills into violence.

The nationwide riots in 2005, the worst urban unrest in France in 40 years, led to the then Right-wing government imposing a state of emergency. They were provoked by the deaths of two youths electrocuted in a substation while hiding from police.

The nightly scenes of car burnings and street fighting led to soul searching over life in the grim housing estates that ring many French cities and the integration of millions of black and North African immigrants.

There has been sporadic unrest since, but nothing like on the same scale.

When Nicolas Sarkozy, the former president, left office, he said he was proud there had been no repeat of widespread urban violence under his watch.

But Hollande has inherited a situation in which many of the basic problems remain.

"France's future depends on its ability to reintegrate the suburbs into the national project," said Gilles Kepel, a respected political scientist and a specialist in the Muslim world, in a recent report after a year-long study in Clichy-sous-Bois and Montfermeil, two Paris suburbs where the 2005 riots began.

His report, Suburbs of the Republic, found that Islamic institutions and practices were increasingly displacing those of the French state, which has failed to deliver on its promise of "equality", and that residents increasingly did not see themselves as French.

None of this was mentioned yesterday, as the Socialist government concentrated on dealing with the immediate security situation.

Manuel Valls, France's interior minister, who travelled to the scene, said: "They attack police officers with firearms, they burn public buildings that are indispensable to people living in these popular districts, they scare people. France and the rule of law will not accept it."