Tensions high as French police try to quell nightly violence

French authorities are trying to calm the nightly violence sparked by brutal police treatment of a 21-year-old African, identified only as Théo, in the Paris suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois.

A burnt-out car marked the front line between police and immigrant youths. Police were attacked with stones, bottles and fruit and vegetables stored in freezers to harden them. A super-market trolley was loaded with petrol containers, lit and launched at police. Cars were burned. Police have fired tear gas, stun grenades and at one point live ammunition into the air.

"It was like Syria here last night," a man in his 50s told the Catholic newspaper La Croix in Aulnay-sous-Bois. "The street lights were cut. A helicopter hovered over our heads . . . What they did to Théo is inadmissible. So even though the youths destroyed the shelter where I take the bus to work every morning at 5.00, I don't blame them."

Théo remains hospitalised in Aulnay-sous-Bois. He was talking to friends behind the cultural centre in the housing project known as the Cité des 3,000 (after its 3,000 inhabitants) at 4.45pm on February 2nd when four policeman demanded to see their identity papers.

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Suspended officers

The policemen, who have been suspended, said they had heard a cry warning drug dealers of their approach. The youths and police faced off so closely that "they could feel each others' breath", said the account pieced together by Le Parisien newspaper.

Théo, who is 1.93m (6ft3inches) tall, was pinned against a wall, then pushed to the ground. Tear gas was fired. Turning his head, Théo said he saw a policeman “take out his baton and deliberately shove it in my buttocks.”

Doctors said Théo’s rectum was torn to a depth of 10cm. He will not be able to work for 60 days. A policeman has been placed under investigation for rape. Three others are charged with “deliberate violence in a group”.

Protest marches have taken place in Aulnay-sous-Bois and Paris, Nantes, Rennes and Bordeaux.

President Francois Hollande visited Théo in hospital on Tuesday. The young man, visibly affected by pain-killers, appealed for calm. "My town, you know I love you," Théo said. "I want to find things the way I left them. Please boys, stop the war. I have confidence in justice. Justice will be done."

Identity checks

Identity checks in poor areas are a constant source of friction between police and local residents. "There are too many checks, especially of youths of immigrant origin," said Sebastian Roché, a sociologist and author of several books about the French police. "Too many arbitrary identity checks constitute daily discrimination."

Seventeen young men were tried on Wednesday night for “violence, arson and death threats”. Two received six-month prison sentences. Videos posted on the social network Snapchat and text messages they had sent were used as evidence. Four more young men were to stand trial late on Thursday.

Twenty-eight people were arrested in the Seine-Saint-Denis department overnight from Wednesday to Thursday for "throwing projectiles, arson or violence". Aulnay-sous-Bois was quiet that night, but the violence spread to five nearby towns: Blanc-Mesnil, Neuilly-sur-Marne, Sevran, Stains and Tremblay-en-France.

The riots of October-November 2005 are on everyone's mind. They started when Bouna Traore (15) and Zyed Benna (17) were electrocuted when they hid from police in a local power station. Rioting spread throughout France over three weeks, and a state of emergency was declared for the first time in decades.

Last July, Adama Traoré, who was also African, suffocated to death in police custody in the Val-d’Oise. In October, two police officers were badly burned when youths set fire to their car in Viry-Châtillon.