PARIS (Reuters) – Police and youths clashed for a second night in a low-income Paris suburb on Sunday as strict lockdown rules to curb the spread of the coronavirus threaten a fragile social peace in deprived areas.
The trouble in Villeneuve-La-Garenne first broke out late on Saturday after a motorcyclist was hurt when he collided with the open door of an unmarked police car.
Calm was restored in the early hours of Sunday but later reignited. Fireworks being aimed in the direction of officers and bins were set on fire, BFM TV and C News TV reports showed. Police responded with tear gas.
Mediators have been sent into the neighbourhood to soothe tensions and an internal police inquiry has been launched, police said.
Police said on Sunday they had wanted to stop the motorcyclist after he was seen riding at speed the wrong way down a street, without a helmet.
(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; editing by Richard Lough and Angus MacSwan)
