Massive Paris Police Action Quells Riots

But amateur video contradicts cops' story about boys' death
By Jason Farago,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 29, 2007 6:47 AM CST
Massive Paris Police Action Quells Riots
Riot police unit stand guard in the troubled northern Paris suburb Villiers-le-Bel Wednesday evening, Nov. 28, 2007. The government of the Val d'Oise region north of Paris, the center of the unrest, reported a few scattered incidents after nightfall, but said the situation was calm .(AP Photo/Michel...   (Associated Press)

The Paris suburb of Villiers-le-Bel was relatively calm last night as hundreds of police dressed in riot gear restored order and a helicopter with searchlights hovered over the town. France's interior minister visited the suburb late last night, where a few rioters burned cars but no mass action took place, Reuters reports. Isolated incidents also arose in several other Parisian suburbs.

President Nicolas Sarkozy put down three weeks of rioting in 2005 when he was interior minister and is taking a similarly hard line now, vowing criminal prosecution. Meanwhile, an amateur video of the accident that precipitated the riots contradicts the police version of events that led to the death of two young boys, whose parents are seeking a manslaughter charge. (More France stories.)

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