Riots Spread to Toulouse

Officials say violence has waned despite gun battles

By Neal Colgrass, Newser Staff

Posted Nov 27, 2007 9:11 PM CST

Copied

Riots Spread to Toulouse — Smoke billows as books still burn in a damaged public library that was vandalized and set on fire in Villiers-le-Bel, a northern Paris suburb, Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2007. Rioting in the tough suburbs of northern Paris took a dramatic and potentially deadly new turn with the use of firearms against police,... (Associated Press)

Rioting continued in Paris tonight as youths fired shotguns and "urban guerillas" joined the melee, police said. Fighting also spread to the southern city of Toulouse, where rioters torched at least 20 cars and set two libraries briefly ablaze. Still, officials said violence was down overall as 1,000 officers patrolled the Paris flashpoint of Villiers-le-Bel, the AP reports.

More than 80 cops have been hit by bullets, stones, and bombs, and four injured seriously, BBC reports. One police official said a man with a shotgun "was firing off two shots, reloading in a stairwell, coming back out—boom, boom—and firing again." Sarkozy has called on top ministers for an emergency meeting tomorrow when he is back from China. (More Toulouse stories.)

Report an error