400 vehicles burned in New Year's unrest in France
(AP)
Updated: 2006-01-01 18:07

Rowdy revelers in France torched 425 vehicles overnight in scattered New Year's Eve unrest that has become an annual problem in troubled neighborhoods, the national police chief said Sunday. Last year, 333 cars were burned.

Police Chief Michel Gaudin also said there were no major clashes this year between youths and police overnight, as had been feared. In what has become an annual tradition every New Year's Eve, youths set several hundred cars ablaze in France as festivities get out of hand.

Police were especially cautious this time because of the wave three weeks of rioting and car burning that started in late October. A state of emergency imposed during the rioting is still in effect, and 25,000 police were on alert for the holiday.

The burnings have become a barometer of unrest in France. In other incidents, a small fire broke out at a school in Toulouse, in southwest France, and was quickly put out, local authorities said. In Nice on the French Riviera, firefighters were pelted with stones when they responded to an anonymous phone alert, officials said.

In the nearby Var department of southern France, youths also threw rocks at firefighters in a troubled neighborhood of La-Seine-sur-Mer, local authorities said.

Outside Paris in the suburb of Argenteuil, a small fire was reported at a cultural center.

A wave of rioting broke out October 27 in a poor Paris suburb after two youths who believed police were chasing them hid in a power substation and died of electrocution.

The unrest spread throughout the country in impoverished suburban housing projects that are home to many immigrants from North and West Africa and their French-born children. At the peak, youths incinerated 1,408 vehicles in a single night.

President Jacques Chirac spoke of the unrest during his annual New Year's Eve television address and urged the French to do more to fight racism and a lack of opportunities in poor neighborhoods _ problems that fed frustrations among young rioters.

"Diversity is part of our history: It is a resource," he said. "It is an asset for our future."

Chirac also promised to do more to fight crime and violence.

Burning cars is common in troubled French neighborhoods _ dozens of vehicles are set afire on an average night. The figure has risen to around 300 on New Year's Eve in recent years, according to the Interior Ministry.

About 25,000 police were deployed overnight _ "a few more" than in past years, Casteran said.

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy met with police Saturday afternoon and said that officials had decided to mobilize helicopters because they played a decisive role in stopping the autumn riots.

At the time, helicopters equipped with spotlights and video cameras were used to track bands of marauding youths who sped from attack to attack in cars and on motorbikes.

"The orders I have given are very strict," Sarkozy said. "When there are delinquent acts there will be arrests. Those guilty must be accountable for their acts."