Montfermeil, France – An arrest reignited violence in a tough suburb of Paris, with youths taking to streets with baseball bats, hurling gasoline bombs at public buildings and attacking police, authorities said Tuesday.
National police said nine officers suffered slight injuries, mostly from thrown debris, in the three hours of unrest in Montfermeil, about 10 miles east of such landmarks as the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. Police said they made three arrests and fired rubber pellets to try to disperse the roughly 100 youths.
The unrest was triggered by the arrest Monday of a suspect in the beating of a bus driver earlier this month, the mayor’s office said.
The clashes were a stark reminder of the anger that smolders in depressed French suburbs, despite new government efforts to tackle high youth unemployment and racial inequalities after three weeks of rioting last fall that shook the country.
Mayor Xavier Lemoine said he witnessed the attack on the bus driver and interceded to stop it. He said that about 100 people headed toward his house shouting insults, but police interceded.
Police said they were deploying reinforcements to the neighborhood Tuesday night.
Montfermeil is near the suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois, the flashpoint for last year’s riots, which started after two youths were electrocuted while hiding from police in a power substation.
