France: Riots break out in Paris suburbs after police crash kills youth

He said officers were "confronted with scenes of real urban guerilla warfare.

"Things have gone to a new level with the use of weapons including a hunting rifle. Petrol bombs have become the norm, and now we've got this new element to take into account," he said.

Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president who is currently in China, has appealed for calm.

In Villiers, around 100 youths, crouching behind trash cans, hurled objects at 160 riot police who fired rubber bullets and tear gas.

Buildings torched

The riots lasted about six hours and continued into the early hours of Tuesday.

Young rioters in the nearby towns of Sarcelles, Garges-les-Gonesse, Cergy, Ermont and Goussainville were armed with petrol bombs, bottles filled with acid and baseball bats, police said.

Police said on Tuesday that of the more than 70 officers injured in the latest clashes, five were in critical condition.

"One policeman was wounded in the shoulder after being hit by a high-calibre bullet," a security official said.

The police say some officers suffered bullet wounds, while others were hurt by stones, fireworks and petrol bombs thrown at them in Villiers-le-Bel.

The youths said they were avenging the two teenagers killed when their motorcycle hit a police car on Sunday.

A senior union official said the riots had been more intense than in 2005.

The 2005 unrest, sparked by the accidental deaths of two youths, spread from a nearby suburb of Paris to other cities and continued for three weeks, during which more than 10,000 cars were set ablaze and 300 buildings firebombed.