Scores of cars burned, hundreds arrested over French New Year Riots
Pastor Dale Morgan
Scores of cars burned, hundreds arrested over French New Year Riots*
* By Paris correspondents
* From: AFP
* January 01, 2010 10:31PM
SCORES of cars were burned in France on New Year's Eve and hundreds of
people arrested, authorities said today.
Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said in a statement that 405 arrests
were made across the country and 11 police officers injured but "no
major incidents" were reported.
The official toll of burned cars was due later, he said.
The interior ministry had mobilised 8,000 police in the capital and
45,000 nationally for the night, after authorities counted 1,147 cars
set on fire a year ago - a toll that appeared to have fallen this time
round.
Glass bottles were prohibited at the celebrations in central Paris and
customers banned from filling portable containers at petrol pumps.
In the eastern city of Strasbourg, known as a hotspot for car burning at
New Year, media said about 70 vehicles had been set on fire.
Police in the Hauts-de-Seine district near Paris reported 32 cars burned.
Earlier today Parisian police said 171 arrests were made in the capital,
mainly for burning cars and throwing objects at officers, but no major
clashes with police were reported.
"It is quiet for New Year's Eve. No clashes with the police and no city
violence," said one police source in the Seine-et-Marne district just
outside Paris.
"There were fewer cars burned than normal," said another in
Val-de-Marne, also near the capital.
Turnout for the celebrations in Paris was only half that of last year,
Hortefeux's statement said, with 270,000 people crowding the capital
compared to 550,000 on New Year's Eve 2008.