Gang of youths ambushed police car in Paris

Police had to use their guns to escape from a gang of youths who allegedly ambushed and stoned a police car in a suburb north of Paris at the weekend - the fourth incident of its kind in recent weeks.

One policeman was seriously injured by stones hurled by youths.

His two colleagues were forced to fire their guns over the heads of the gang in a housing estate in the normally relatively calm suburb of Epinay sur Seine.

Their patrol car was trapped when a driverless vehicle was rolled behind it by a group of up to 50 youths, according to police.

The incident is one of several serious clashes between police and youth gangs in disparate parts of the Paris suburbs in recent weeks as the anniversary of last year's three weeks of riots in poor, multi-racial suburbs approaches.

Previous incidents, described as "ambushes" by the police at the time, have later proved on investigation to be more confused and unplanned.

Right wing politicians claimed yesterday that there was a coordinated campaign to ratchet up tension and provoke an incident which would lead to renewed rioting.

Local youth workers said that there was no connection between the incidents, other than a spirit of "competition" between suburban gangs and the aggressive attitude of some police officers to youths in racially mixed housing estates.

In the most recent incident, late on Friday night, a police car was sent to investigate reports of muggings in the Ogrement district of Epinay, a poor area haunted by drugs gangs and sporadic violence.

The police car was attacked with stones and baseball bats and one policeman, Christophe Estéve, 30, was hit in the face.

Police said that the officers had been "ambushed" by up to 50 youths.

Local people said that no more than 20 youths were involved and the incident began when the police began to interrogate forcefully a couple of youths intercepted on the street.

- INDEPENDENT