Paris in grip of violence

Paris: Prime Minister Georges Pompidou said today the overnight explosion of violence in Paris and other areas of France was an attempt to start a “civil war”.

He called upon the forces of law and order to crush further demonstrations immediately and relentlessly.

he wild night, with violence reaching its peak since the crisis began three weeks ago, resulted in the death of two persons, injuries to many hundreds and the arrests of many hundreds more.

In Paris alone, the municipal hospital service reported 456 persons treated for injuries, of whom 178 were hospitalised. A 26- year- old man died of knife wounds.

In Lyon, a police commissioner was crushed to death by a rock- laden truck pushed at the police by rampaging students.

Streets in Paris’ Latin quarter, as well as in Strasbourg, were like battlefields — a shambles of felled trees, vehicles and stones thrown together for makeshift barricades by students battling the police into the small morning hours.

Prime Minister Pampidou said it was necessary “without delay to end subversive agitation.”

The Prime Minister appealed to the population to exercise the greatest prudence and not to join in assemblages or parades.

“Faced with an obvious attempt to unleash a start of civil war, as is shown by what happened in the big cities as for example Lyon, the forces of law and order were given the mission of destroying the barricades, dispersing the demonstrators and occupying the principal arteries held by the rioters,” Mr. Pompidou told reporters.