Riot arrests

Regional security official Brigitte Julien said four people have been arrested for allegedly shooting at police officers, and seven others have been detained for carrying illegal weapons or projectiles.

Clashes broke out Friday after a local resident suspected in the armed robbery of a casino was killed while fleeing police.

A mob of youths then torched around 60 cars on Friday and shot at police officers. No one was injured. A second night of rioting continued on Saturday, but on a lesser scale with arson attacks on 15 cars. Julien said in one incident on Saturday, rioters shot at police from a building.

The four were arrested in a dawn raid in the working class neighborhood of La Villeneuve. Police have not identified the suspects, nor given their ages.

The mayor of Grenoble, Michel Destot, described the suburb of Villeneuve as largely immigrant and poor, with an unemployment rate of more than 30 percent.

'Authority always wins'

Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux visited the scene on Saturday and pledged to quickly restore order.

"There's no future for hoodlums and delinquents because in the end the public authority always wins," he said.

The Villeneuve area has now been flooded with an extra 250 police officers in an attempt to quash the riots.

The weekend's clashes have sparked memories of the clashes of October 2005, when weeks of rioting broke out in suburbs across France, triggered by the death of two youths who were electrocuted when they entered an electricity installation as they ran away from police.

Saliya Boudouda, the mother of the man killed on Thursday, said she would lodge a complaint against police.

Author: Catherine Bolsover (Reuters/AFP/AP)

Editor: Sean Sinico