PARIS (AFP)--More than 280 people were detained and more than 1,000 cars torched during New Year celebrations across France, mostly in its troubled suburbs, the interior ministry said Thursday.
Four police officials were slightly injured, according to the interior ministry, which said its security forces "were of the unanimous view" that New Year's Eve was "rather calm and without major incident."
The interior ministry had earlier said 445 vehicles were set on fire overnight, but later revised that figure to 1,147.
The number of arrests and cars torched topped last year's tally of 259 people detained and 372 vehicles burned.
"There were very few targetings of fire trucks and clashes with security forces, in particular in the suburbs," noted the interior ministry in a statement.
When clashes occurred, they were "brief and sporadic," it added. There was no damage to buildings.
France's poor high-immigrant suburbs exploded into rioting in 2005 and there have been outbreaks of violence and simmering tensions ever since.
The areas are home to rundown housing estates where unemployment runs high and young descendants of African and Arab immigrants say they feel left out of mainstream French society.
Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie late Wednesday went to a high-crime Paris suburb to oversee security plans, saying New Year's Eve was "the evening when the most accidents and incidents can happen.
"I want the French people everywhere to be able to celebrate among friends so that this evening is not a time for violence and degradation," said Alliot-Marie in Saint-Denis, north of Paris.
France mobilized 35,000 police and 50,000 firefighters to maintain order during the New Year fete.
About 550,000 people rang in the New Year on the Champs Elysees, more than the 400,000 who celebrated on the famed Paris avenue last year, according to police.
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Publié le 01 janvier 2009 Copyright © 2009 Dowjones