In a disturbing development, some gangs escalated the level of violence. In the western town of Evreux, 16 police and fire officers were hurt when a 200-strong crowd of youths, some armed with baseball bats, attacked their units.
Unrest has now flared in up to 200 city suburbs and towns, including Marseille, Nice, Lille, Bordeaux and Montpellier, police said.
A police chief, Frederic Aureal, said his officers were encountering an unprecedented hostility from gangs, which he described as "prepared, structured, armed".
"We have come face-to-face with people who have attacked us with picks, petanque balls, many Molotov cocktails," he said.
In a sign of organisation behind the riots, police overnight Saturday discovered a petrol-bomb factory south of the capital with 50 bottles ready for use. Ski masks were also found. |
