Riots in Paris. posted by Richard Seymour

Rioting has spread to more suburbs of Paris on a sixth night of unrest in the outskirts of the French capital.
At Aulnay-sous-Bois, cars were torched as gangs of youths hurled stones at police in riot gear, who responded by firing rubber bullets.

But the epicentre of the trouble, Clichy-sous-Bois, was said to be calm, with a heavy police presence.

The unrest was sparked by the death of two boys whom locals think were fleeing police, despite official denials.

Correspondents say anger has been fuelled by a tear gas canister hurled into the town's mosque on Sunday night, and arrests.

Running battles between the youth and the police continued through the weekend. Some 70 cars and many rubbish bins were incinerated. The police fired around 150 rubber and plastic bullets and an unspecified number of tear gas canisters, and have continued to maintain a heavy presence.

Sarkozy, the chairman of the ruling Gaullist party and leading contender for the candidacy of his party in the 2007 presidential elections, has been building his reputation on an aggressive law-and-order platform.

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The state prosecutor for Bobigny told the press: “It’s all the more tragic for the fact that they were not delinquents and they had done nothing wrong.” This was a refutation of the initial statements of Sarkozy and Prime Minister Dominique deVillepin that the boys had been involved in theft and vandalism.

The lawyer representing the victims’ parents, Jean-Pierre Mignard, asked an essential question: “Why did young people, who were doing no wrong, feel so threatened that they made their way into such a dangerous place?”

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Sarkozy has been making provocative statements against youth from the council estates. He has promised to sandblast the “scum” and “gangrene” from the estates. He has also pledged to visit a “difficult” area every week.