Attackers smash cars, clash with police in Paris

updated 7:06 a.m. ET July 7, 2007

PARIS - Some 50 masked attackers smashed cars and clashed with police in northeast Paris on Friday night. Three officers were injured, police said.

The crowd had gathered at Place Gambetta in the city’s working class 20th district to honor a young man killed during a police raid last month, according to the city police department.

The group, some masked and armed with batons, then moved to the nearby Belleville neighborhood and smashed vehicles, including a police car, police said.

No arrests were immediately reported.

Tensions have remained high between police and French youth, especially minorities in rundown housing projects, since riots erupted in such neighborhoods nationwide in 2005. Most of the rioting hit impoverished suburbs that ring French cities, while Paris was largely spared.

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