France declares state of emergency

[skooooo]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-1862479,00.html

France today declared a state of emergency to allow the introduction of localised curfews in an attempt to end the wave of riots which has flared across the country for 12 nights.

President Jacques Chirac announced the extreme measure - which bans the movement of people and vehicles after dark and allows police to set up roadblocks - after a crisis meeting of his Cabinet this morning.

In their now routine assessment of the previous night's carnage, police reported 330 arrests, 12 officers hurt and 1,173 vehicles burned in about 300 towns last night. This compares to 1,408 cars burnt on the previous night.

The focus of the trouble has shifted from Paris to other major cities, with the worst violence reported in Toulouse and Lille, where a crèche was torched in a previously tranquil working class neighbourhood.