The violence which has plagued the Paris suburbs since Thursday spread to several other departments ringing the French capital overnight, with many cars set ablaze, French authorities said Wednesday.

According to Paris police officials, many cars have been set ablaze in cities of the five satellite departments ringing Paris overnight. Throughout the Seine-Saint-Denis area, some 60 vehicles have been torched.

In Sevran and Aulnay-sous-Bois, young people threw rocks at police besides setting cars on fire, while police fired flaring shots in return on Tuesday, officials said.

Police have also reported sporadic incidents involving "very mobile" groups of youths in Val-d'Oise to the north of the capital, Seine-et-Marne to the southeast, and Hauts-de-Seine and Yvelines to the northeast.

More than 150 fires have been reported overnight, most of which were caused by burning cars and garbage cans, according to the police.

Many Parisians believe the troubles were triggered by the deaths of two teenagers in Clichy-sous-Bois on Thursday. The boys were electrocuted in a power substation where they hid to escape police officers who they thought were chasing them. A third boy was injured but survived.

Unrest followed as hundreds of angry young people took to the streets, setting garbage cans and cars ablaze and clashing with police. They also organized large-scale demonstrations in the following days against the police and the authority.

Clichy-sous-Bois is in the suburbs that ring France's big cities and home to immigrants often from Muslim North Africa. Its soaring unemployment and alleged discrimination against these immigrants have aroused great dissatisfaction.

Local people are blaming the tension on the police's rough ways in pursuing suspects and dealing with the unrest, saying they smack of racial discrimination.

On Sunday night, a tear gas grenade believed by the locals to be thrown by police landed in the Clichy-sous-Bois mosque, arousing more anger and resulting in arrests.

In a bid to end the rioting, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin met Tuesday night with the parents of the three boys and ordered a thorough investigation into the matter, while calling on people to stay calm.

Villepin later summoned eight ministers to a special meeting on problem neighborhoods in an effort to rein in squabbling ministers and deflect opposition charges of drift.

"The law must be firmly applied and in a spirit of dialogue and respect," government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope quoted Chirac as telling the weekly cabinet meeting.

A heavy police presence kept a tense order in Clichy-sous-Bois as disturbances broke out in previously quiet areas. A total of 34 people were detained by police overnight.

Despite these efforts, violence continued in other cities in the province and other suburb provinces around Paris.

(Xinhua News Agency, China Daily November 3, 2005)