In fresh violence which started late on Sunday, rioters shot and injured 10 policemen, two of them seriously, when they fired at security forces confronting 200 stone-throwers, police said. “The Republic is quite determined, by definition, to be stronger than those who want to sow violence or fear,” Chirac said after a special domestic security council met to respond to the latest violence in which 1,300 vehicles went up in flames.

“The law must have the last word,” Chirac said in his first public comments since the riots started in the poor suburbs, noting the importance of the respect of all, the law and the equality of chances. Violence was renewed as darkness enveloped Paris. A police spokesman said gunmen among some 200 youths attacking police with stones and other objects in Grigny, south of Paris, fired at officers with shotguns, hitting 10 policemen.

Two officers were being treated in hospital, one with shot wounds to the throat, the other with wounds to a leg. Asked whether the rioters could have killed someone, the spokesman said: “Probably not at this distance, but they could have caused bad injuries, or turn one of the officers blind.” Youths earlier seized a bus in Saint-Etienne, in southern France, ordered passengers to get off and then torched the vehicle. The driver and one passenger were hurt, officials said.

In Rouen, in the north, rioters pushed a burning car against a police building. No-one was hurt, police said. Cars were also burned in the cities of Nantes, Rennes and Orleans, media said. Chirac’s government is struggling to cope with an explosion of unrest with complex social, economic and racial causes. Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said the government would step up security wherever necessary. Some 2,300 extra officers have already been drafted in.

<B>African origin</B>

“We cannot accept any ‘no-go’ areas,” Villepin said after meeting Chirac, adding he would announce plans for the country’s underprivileged suburbs on national television yesterday. Rioting began 10 days ago with the accidental electrocution of two youths of African origin apparently fleeing police. Their deaths ignited anger among ethnic minorities over unemployment, racism, police treatment and their marginal role in France.

“This is too much, stop!” sobbed a woman in Evreux, a normally quiet town in rural Normandy where a shopping mall, 50 vehicles, a post office and two schools were destroyed.

Across France, 1,300 vehicles went up in flames overnight. For the first time, more than 30 were destroyed inside the city walls of Paris. Previously quiet towns such as Dreux, to the west, and the city of Nantes were also affected. Police said 349 people had been arrested, including six youths caught stockpiling 90 Molotov cocktails in a disused police building south of Paris.

Despite the worst destruction since the riots started, a police spokesman called for a sense of proportion: “It’s 211 districts out of 36,000, so France is not burning.” Authorities say drug traffickers and Islamist militants are helping organise the unrest, via the Internet and mobile phones, among the North and sub-Saharan African immigrant communities who make up a significant part of many suburban housing estates.

“France is not burning”</B>