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The Eurostar riots: Britons caught in mob violence at Paris station
Last updated at 21:07pm on 28.03.07Scores of British travellers were caught up in a riot at the Eurostar terminal in Paris.
The fighting was sparked by a dispute between ticket inspectors and a fare dodger. But within minutes more than 100 yobs were on the rampage at the Gare du Nord. and hurled objects at police.
Police arrive at Gare du Nord after violence erupted
They smashed windows, attacked vending machines, set fire to an information booth and hurled objects at police.
Officers replied with tear gas and used dogs to charge at the groups of marauding youths who were mingling with commuters and travellers.
Neil Foster, a 19-year-old student, who was caught up in the trouble on Tuesday night, said at the height of the violence: "It's like a battleground. Lots of people seem to be here for a fight and the police are responding.
Youths throw anything they can get their hands on at police
"The station is an extremely dangerous place to be at the moment."
The trouble spread outside the station, with the gangs smashing car windows and shouting "Police are everywhere, justice is nowhere" and "Down with the state, police and bosses".
The fare dodger, who punched one ticket inspector, has a lengthy criminal record, interior minister Francois Baroin said.
Police, who made 13 arrests, said he was an illegal immigrant from Congo who has challenged efforts to expel him. He was convicted in 2004 for insulting a magistrate. The ticket check "got out of hand and transformed into urban guerrilla warfare, into unacceptable, intolerable violence," added Mr Baroin. "Nothing can justify what happened."
Rail lines connect Gare du Nord to the troubled suburbs north of Paris which were the scene of massive rioting in October and November 2005.
That violence was born of pentup anger - especially among youths of Arab and African origin - over high unemployment, racial discrimination and economic inequality.
A yob smashes a window while a suspect is handcuffed inside the station. Officers made 13 arrests
Since then, sporadic incidents have broken out in suburbs that many middle-class people avoid.
The Gare du Nord incident immediately became a campaign issue in a national election that is less than a month away.
The Socialist Party said it illustrated "the gulf and the engrained violence between the police and the population".
Some of the youths shouted slogans against hardliner Nicolas Sarkozy, the election front-runner from the governing right who is despised by many in France's poor housing estates.
Many of the rioters appeared to be of African or North African origin.
"If things continue like this, there is a real risk that relations between police and youths will become hysterical," said Nicolas Comte, head of the SGP-FO police union.
Reader views (4)
The French left wing live in a fantasy world and the usual crowd who cause the trouble have an attitude problem and the rest of the population is weak willed. Send in the paras!
- Greg, Belgium
I wouldn't be too smug. It could quite easily happpen here. You wait for the next downturn in the economy.
- Mark, London UK
Much of the action seems to have been in the part of the station which is under the ground. It is always a nightmare, a bit like being trapped in an Escher drawing - the one with the staircases that continually bring you back to the same spot.
- Richard, Wandsworth, UK
Shock horror, youths riot in Paris, well that hasn't happened for at least 6 months has it.
- Trevor Roll, London
