French PM vows tougher punishment for bus attacks

PARIS - French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has vowed to stiffen punishments for vandals after youths torched a bus in the southern city of Marseille, leaving a badly burnt woman fighting for her life.

With the weekend attack coming exactly one year after the start of widespread riots in poor, largely immigrant French suburbs, the conservative government sought to quell fears that France risked a new wave of unrest.

"Faced with such violent acts, the first response must be the systematic arrest of all those involved and their exemplary and speedy punishment," Villepin said after a special meeting with ministers on public transport security.

"We will not only punish those directly responsible for an ambush, as has been the case before, but also those who take part in or encourage them," the prime minister said.

The Marseille attack followed the torching of several buses and cars around Paris in recent weeks.

The IGS police watchdog has also launched a probe into how a 16 year-old was injured when police fired a 'flash-ball' gun, which uses rubber bullets, during a clash with youths on Saturday night in the same Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois where the riots began last year, a police source said.

Police had warned that a wave of violence ahead of the anniversary of last year's riots could spiral out of control.

But Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said he saw no risk of violence spreading despite the weekend attack, urging his compatriots not to play up the riot anniversary date.

"Some people have kept putting oil on the fire by talking about the commemoration of an anniversary that isn't one. But contrary to their hopes, there's no risk of contagion for the moment," he told Europe 1 radio.

Sarkozy said officials were close to identifying the hooded vandals who held up the Marseille bus on Saturday evening and torched it before student Mama Galledou could escape. The 26-year old suffered burns to 60 per cent of her body.

Sarkozy, who is loved and loathed in equal measure for his tough talk on law and order, has faced criticism from opposition leftists for the continued violence in France's rundown suburbs.

They have accused him of focusing more on next year's presidential elections, where he is the favourite to become the conservative candidate, than on his duties as interior minister.

"The problem isn't firmness," said Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who hopes to win the Socialist party's presidential ticket. "It's efficiency. And Sarkozy's problem is that for four years, he hasn't been efficient," he told RMC radio.

Sarkozy said police had indications that some of the attackers were juveniles but he declined to give details.

Villepin called on witnesses of the attack to come forward, saying they would be allowed to keep their anonymity.

Several dozen people were arrested at the weekend after youths set cars ablaze and threw stones at police. But the interior ministry said the two days had been "relatively quiet", apart from the attack in Marseille.

In the first six months of 2006, some 21,000 cars were burned out and 2882 attacks on police, fire and ambulance services were recorded.

- REUTERS