Timeline of The 2005 French Civil Unrest - Second Week

Second Week

• Thursday, November 3 - 8th night of rioting
  • Traffic was halted on the RER B suburban commuter line which links Paris to Charles de Gaulle airport after unions called for a strike.
  • Rioters attacked two trains overnight at the Le Blanc-Mesnil station, forced a conductor from one train and broke windows, the SNCF rail authority said. A passenger was lightly injured by broken glass.
  • For the first time the riots spread outside of Paris, spreading to Dijon with sporadic violence in Bouches-du-Rhône in the south and Rouen in the north-west of France.
  • In Parliament, de Villepin pledged again to restore order as his government has come under criticism for its failure to prevent the violence.
  • Around 1000 firemen were called to put out a blaze at a carpet factory while twenty-seven buses were set alight.
  • 500 cars were torched and arson occurred in Aulnay-sous-Bois, Neuilly-sur-Marne, Le Blanc Mesnil, and Yvelines. . Additionally, 7 were burned in Paris, and others had their windows broken out near the metro station La Chapelle. Nationally, 593 vehicles were torched Thursday.

• Friday night, November 4 - 9th night of rioting
  • Violence continued in Val d'Oise, Seine-et-Marne and Seine-Saint-Denis. Arson and attacks on vehicles occurred in Aubervilliers, Sarcelles, Montmagny and Persan.
  • French police claim incidents Thursday night have diminished in intensity compared to the previous night, with only fifty vehicles set on fire . Prefect Jean-François Cordet said in a statement that "contrary to the previous nights, there were fewer direct clashes with the forces of order."
  • "Traore's brother, Siyakah Traore, called for protesters to 'calm down and stop ransacking everything.'" .
  • Violence spread to Lille and Toulouse for the first time .

• Saturday, November 5
  • Day
    • Police reported the discovery of a bomb making factory for producing gasoline bombs inside of a derelict building in Évry, south of Paris, raising questions on the possibility of planning well in advance of the riots. Six minors have been arrested.
    • Several thousand residents of Aulnay-sous-Bois joined a march in protest against the riots, initiated by the commune's mayor, Gérard Gaudron.
    • At noon, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin met with Nicolas Sarkozy and other cabinet members.
    • Yves Bot, public prosecutor of the city of Paris, on Europe 1 radio described the events as organized violence, well beyond spontaneously erupting riots. Bot alleged that adolescents in other cities were being incited to commence rioting via the internet, saying that the violence was directed against institutions of the Republic, but he denied it being ethnic in character.
  • Night - 10th night of rioting
    • Around France, 897 vehicles were torched and 170 people arrested .
    • An incendiary device was tossed at the wall of a synagogue Pierrefitte .
    • Firefighters were attacked while rescuing a sick person in Meaux.
    • Violence continued both within and outside Paris. In Grigny, two schools were set on fire.
    • Another school was set on fire in Vigneux.
    • A nursery school was burned in Achères, west of Paris, outraging residents who demanded that the French Army be deployed or that a citizens militia be formed .
    • In Torcy, close to Bussy-Saint-Georges, rioters set fire to a police station and a youth center.
    • Additional attacks occurred in Avignon (Vaucluse), Saint-Dizier (Haute-Marne), Soissons (Aisne), Nantes (Loire-Atlantique), Blois (Loir-et-Cher), Montauban (Tarn-et-Garonne) and in the north at Lille, Roubaix, Tourcoing, Mons-en-Baroeuil. Other incidents occurred in Cannes, Nice, and Toulouse..
    • In the Normandy city of Évreux, over 50 cars, a shopping center, a post office, and two schools were burned. . 253 people were arrested.

• Sunday November 6
  • Morning
    • Cars torched in central Paris for the first time, in the historic third district. There, citizens urged for the French Army to be deployed.
    • The total number of vehicles torched during the night is estimated at 1,295, the highest number so far. 193 people were arrested. An extra 2,300 police were drafted. .
    • In broad daylight on Sunday, a Belgian RTBF news crew was physically assaulted in Lille, injuring a cameraman.
    • A Korean female journalist from KBS TV was knocked unconscious with repeated punches and kicks to her face and head in Aubervilliers
    • As of Sunday morning, tenth night, the total number of people arrested since October 27 surpassed 800, and the total number of vehicles set on fire is estimated to be around 3,500.
  • Night - 11th night of rioting
    • Rioters fired large-caliber ammunition from pistols and hunting rifles in the southern Parisian suburb of Grigny, injuring 34 policemen, three of them seriously. Two of them are reported to have been hit in the head. The shots ended at 8:30 pm; according to a journaliste of Le Monde and several social workers, this might be related to the beginning of the soccer match PSG–AS Monaco (France Inter, Nov. 7)
    • For the first time, Catholic churches have been attacked with Molotov cocktails in Liévin and Lens in Pas-de-Calais and Sète in Hérault.
    • 1408 vehicles have been torched during the night (982 vehicles were burned outside Paris), and 395 people were arrested. A Polish tourbus parked in Alfortville waiting to return a group of vacationers to Poland was one of the vehicles that were destroyed.
    • In the first incident outside France, five cars were torched in Saint-Gillis, Brussels, Belgium.
    • German police suspects that the torching of five vehicles in Berlin may potentially be connected to the rioting in Paris suburbs. . Similar incidents have been registered in Bremen.

• Monday November 7
  • Day
    • A 61-year-old man, Jean-Jacques Le Chenadec, a former Renault employee, died in the hospital because of the injuries sustained after being beaten when he went to check on a garbage can fire in the suburb of Stains. He succumbed to his injuries, becoming the first death caused by the riots. According to a witness, Jean-Jacques was 'deliberately assassinated'.
    • Rioter Moussa Diallo is quoted as saying: "This is just the beginning. It's not going to end until there are two policemen dead."
    • Eric Raoult, mayor of Raincy, which is one of the cities hit by the riots, has imposed a curfew on people younger than 15-years-old from 1 am to dawn .
    • France 3 has decided to stop revealing the toll of the riots and the number of cars torched in order to not inflame the situation.
    • Three French blog participants have been arrested for provoking the violence.
    • Jewish religious leaders in France report they have been advised by the government not to discuss their fears publicly in order to avoid further anti-Semitic attacks.
    • The Union of French Islamic Organizations (UOIF) issued a fatwa condemning the violence
    • De Villepin on the TF1 television channel announced the deployment of 18,000 police, supported by a 1,500 strong reserve. .
  • Night - 12th night of rioting
    • Police said that violence in Seine-Saint-Denis was still simmering, but the situation was calmer than in the previous nights, with three times fewer calls to the fire services, but violence continued in the province.
    • In Toulouse, some 50 rioters stopped and torched a bus and ordered the driver to get out, hurling firebombs and other objects as police arrived
    • Two schools were torched in Lille Sud and in Bruay-sur-Escaut near the city of Valenciennes. A gymnasium was burned in Villepinte.
    • Additional violence and vandalism in eastern France in Alsace, Lorraine and Franche-Comté. Violence in Toulouse, Strasbourg, Blois, Moselle, and Doubs.
    • 1173 vehicles have been burned.
    • Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin announced that, starting on Wednesday, "wherever it is necessary, prefects will be able to impose a curfew". No army intervention is being planned .
• Tuesday November 8
  • Day
    • The Belgian TV-station VTM reports that a Molotov cocktail was thrown into a school's bicycle parking during class hours, and that their reporters had been attacked on the scene.
    • President Jacques Chirac declares a state of emergency following an emergency session of his cabinet, and the re-activation of a 1955 law enacted during the Algerian War, allowing local authorities to impose curfews, beginning on Tuesday, 12 PM, with an initial 12-day limit.
  • Night - 13th night of rioting
    • Protestant church in Meulan attacked.
    • Youths threw firebombs at police and set cars ablaze in suburb of Toulouse. Dozens of youths set fire to at least 10 cars and threw objects at police.
    • As of midnight Central European Time, the French Republic is placed under a State of Emergency. The cities of Orléans, Blois and Amiens imposed curfews on minors below 16 years of age.
    • Senior interior ministry official Claude Gueant said police had seen "a very significant drop" in the intensity of the unrest. The number of cars set alight across France overnight Tuesday to Wednesday fell to 617, hundreds fewer than the night before. Some 280 people were arrested and disturbances broke out in 116 areas, half the number affected the preceding night.
    • Public transport in Lyon was shut down after a Molotov cocktail hit a train station.
    • In Bordeaux, a Molotov cocktail hit a gas-powered bus.
• Wednesday November 9
  • Day
    • French businesses are worried that the cost of the past 13 nights of rioting that has swept the country could go beyond clean-up to hurt investment and consumer confidence going into the all-important winter shopping season. Concerns about the violence helped push the euro to two-year lows against the US dollar as companies postpone investment in some of the affected areas, potential tourists watch neighborhoods burn on television and the stakes increase the longer the riots continue.
    • Daniel Feurtet, the communist mayor of the riot-hit Le Blanc-Mesnil district, threatened to quit. "If the prefect decides to impose a curfew in one of our areas, I'll hand in my resignation right away", he told Le Monde newspaper, referring to the regional government officials empowered to impose curfews.
    • Interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy has ordered the expulsion of all foreigners convicted of taking part in the riots that have swept France for 13 nights. He told parliament 120 foreigners had been found guilty of involvement and would be deported without delay.
  • Night - 14th night of rioting
    • Authorities imposed curfews in 38 areas, including Marseille, Nice, Cannes, Strasbourg, Lyon, Toulouse and Paris. Incidents of vandalism decreased noticeably, with some clashes in Belfort, and a nursery school going up in flames in the southern city of Toulouse
    • 482 vehicles were burned and 203 arrests were made during the night.
    • The Paris area appeared quiet, according to authorities, and a spokesman for Seine-et-Marne said "the trouble is subsiding".
    • Several towns in the suburbs of Paris and elsewhere are organizing themselves to restore order.