Paris burns

IT WAS just the scene the French Government had been dreading: burning cars seven blocks from the Eiffel Tower, shop windows smashed along one of the capital's smartest streets, and columns of helmeted riot police advancing near a prominent tourist venue.

Antoil Ethuin, 48, stood outside the shattered windows of his Bike'n'Roll rental shop on Thursday, stunned by the destruction of the worst violence in two weeks of student protests in Paris and other French cities.

"My country is broken," said Mr Ethuin, gazing at the smouldering wrecks a few metres away and the carpet of glass shards, broken dishes and computer parts covering the footpath in the heart of one of the city's most affluent suburbs.

"I never imagined I would ever see this in Paris."

The unrest intensified a political crisis threatening to unravel the Government much the way previous French governments have been felled by strikes and street protests when they attempted even modest reforms of the costly welfare state.

The Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin, hastily arranged an emergency meeting with the most influential unions to defuse the crisis.

On Thursday, as a crowd of 140,000 were about to end their march in the park adjoining the gold-domed Hotel des Invalides, near Napoleon's tomb, gangs of hooded and masked youths darted out of side streets, setting cars ablaze, flipping others upside down, breaking shop windows and hurling rocks at police and firefighters.

Riot police broke up the groups with teargas as acrid black smoke filled narrow streets and billowed above the skyline.

Police said 60 people were injured in the clashes, including 27 police officers. Officials said 141 people were arrested.

Mr Villepin had attempted to capitalise on the political misfortunes of his rival, the Interior Minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, by advocating a law he said was intended to give companies greater incentive to hire young people. The law would allow employers to fire workers aged under 26 without reason during their first two years on the job.

University students, other young people and unions say the law discriminates against the young by denying them the job security that older workers have.

On Thursday newspapers began reporting leaks from anonymous government officials that President Jacques Chirac was threatening to fire Mr Villepin if he did not resolve the escalating crisis quickly.

The Washington Post