Authorities in several French towns have ordered night-time curfews for children under the age of 13, as a wave of car-burning and attacks on firemen over the weekend prompted fears of a "hot" summer of suburban violence.
After a landmark decision a week ago by the state council -- France's highest administrative court -- permitting the new right-wing mayor of Orleans to put parts of the town off-limits to children in the hours of darkness, nine other municipalities have followed suit.
They include Cote d'Azur towns such as Cannes and Nice -- where the famous Promenade des Anglais has been made out of bounds -- as well poor and high-immigration neigbourhoods, or "banlieus", on the outskirts of Paris such as Colombes and Aulnay-sous-Bois.
For the length of the summer holidays -- when boredom, heat and the long evenings can form an explosive cocktail -- police are authorised to detain unaccompanied children in designated areas of these towns, and take them home.
It was in Aulnay-sous-Bois, to the north of the capital, that the worst of Saturday night's violence took place, with youths laying an ambush for fire-fighters, directing a mechanical digger at a fire-engine then launching an attack with iron-bars -- PARIS (AFP)
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