French riots claim first fatality

[Adultnet]

PARIS, France (CNN) -- A man who was beaten by an attacker during rioting north of Paris has died, becoming the first fatality since urban unrest started 11 days ago, according to the French Foreign Ministry.

The man was beaten as he tried to put out a trash can fire on Friday in the Paris suburb of Stains in the region of Seine-Saint Denis.

A ministry spokesman identified the man as Jean Jacques Le Chenadec, 61, and said he died in a hospital of his wounds. He had been in a coma since the attack near his home.

The rioting started in Paris after two black teenagers were electrocuted on October 27. Local residents blamed the police for chasing the youths; police denied they were in pursuit.

The disturbances have since spread around the country among disaffected youths, mostly of Muslim or African origin, to become France's worst civil unrest in over a decade. (Paris has simmered)

Fears were also growing Monday that the unrest could take hold elsewhere in Europe. Five cars have been torched in both Brussels and Berlin and police said they were they were investigating if they were copycat attacks. (Full story)

Damage from protests across France hit a new peak overnight, as rioters burned 1,408 vehicles in 274 towns, France's national police chief said. More than 4,300 vehicles have been burned since the riots began 11 days ago.

The figure was an increase from the night before, when 1,295 vehicles were burned, Michel Gaudin told a news conference. He said that police made 395 arrests overnight Sunday-Monday, up from 345 the night before.

Ten riot police were injured by youths firing fine-grain birdshot in the southern Paris suburb of Grigny, national police spokesman Patrick Hamon said.

Two were hospitalized but their lives were not in danger, he said. It was the first time police were injured by weapons fire since the unrest started.

"We are witnessing a sort of shock wave that is spreading across the country," Gaudin said, noting that the violence appeared to be sliding away from Paris and worsening elsewhere in France.

The violence came in open defiance to a warning by French President Jacques Chirac who pledged to clamp down on the troublemakers.

Chirac emerged from an emergency meeting with top members of his Cabinet on Sunday to tell his nation that the "absolute priority is to reestablish security and public order."

"The law should have the final say, and the republic is determined to be stronger than those who want spread violence and fear. Those people will be apprehended, judged and punished."

Chirac also said he wanted to address what some observers have blamed as the cause -- unemployment as high as 50 percent among the nation's poor immigrant youth and discrimination against them.

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin promised speeded up trials for rioters and extra security during the worst civil unrest seen in France in at least a decade.

The list of cities attacked is growing -- from Lille in the north to Rouen and Orleans in the west, to the Mediterranean cities of Nice and Cannes, to Strasbourg and Colmar in the east, with youths attacking shops, schools and a police station.

CNN correspondents have said renegade youths have turned neighborhoods into no-go zones, even in the daytime.

Among the worst incidents reported -- rocks thrown at two buses hit a 13-month-old child in Colombe, an official with the Interior Ministry said. The child was in serious condition.

In the northern city of Rouen, a police barricade was set afire and a burning car was pushed into the police station; and in Strasbourg, near the German border, a school was torched.

A church was set ablaze in the southern fishing town of Sete and another in nearby Lens, Pas de Calais; two schools in the southeastern town of Saint-Etienne and a police station in the central France town of Clermont-Ferrand were torched, as was a social center in the Parisian suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis.

There have been calls by opposition groups on the left, including the Green Party and the Communist Party, for Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy to resign after he called the rioters "scum" last week -- language that inflamed the vandalism. (Watch French teens explain why they're angry -- 2:08)

The spreading violence has shocked national leaders and community residents into action, with mediators and religious leaders talking to the youths in an effort to stop the violence.

French Muslim groups also issued a fatwa against the violence, according to Reuters news agency. (Full story)

The Union of French Islamic Organizations (UOIF) condemned the disorder and destruction the riots had caused.

Australia, Austria, Britain, Germany and Hungary advised their citizens to exercise care in France, joining the United States and Russia in warning tourists to stay away from violence-hit areas.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe...ots/index.html

[com]

leave it to the french, 11 days of rioting, 1 fatality

[boner 2.0]

Originally Posted by com

leave it to the french, 11 days of rioting, 1 fatality

I was going to say that. GO FRANCE!

[Phoenix]

time to kick some ass...so the welfare checks they cash cause they dont work..were not enough?

[Manga1]

Fucking savages. They beat a 61 year old man to death for putting out a fire and hit a 13 month old baby with a rock. That says it all.

I'm sure it was a lot worse in the countries they came from. Now they have higher standards all of a sudden. France should send the troops in and finish this.

[slapass]

I am not even sure if the US would even notice this going on here. Some of our cities see more violence then this on a nightly basis for no reason.

[tristan_D]

if it happened in other city number of casualty could have been higher