France will give local government officials the authority to impose curfews in areas hit by rioting to try to halt almost two weeks of unrest, French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin announced tonight.
Last night, rioters shot and wounded police and torched 1,400 vehicles and a man beaten by a youth became the first fatality today.
Mr de Villepin ruled out army intervention in an interview with France's TF1 television but said the cabinet would meet tomorrow to clear the way for government officials known as prefects to impose curfews.
"Wherever it is necessary, prefects will be able to impose a curfew," Mr de Villepin said, adding that procedures for such action were set out in a 1955 law.
He said 1,500 police and gendarmes would be brought in to back up the 8,000 officers already deployed in areas hit by unrest that began in a poor Paris suburb on October 27th.
The government has struggled to formulate a response that could halt the unrest, which was sparked by frustration among ethnic minorities over racism, unemployment and harsh treatment by police and has spread to cities and towns across France.
France's worst violence in decades defied a vow by President Jacques Chirac to defeat the troublemakers and has grown worse daily, prompting warnings it could hit investment and tourism in France.
The first fatality in the 11 days of violence was Jean-Jacques Le Chenadec (60), who died after being beaten by a gang of youths on Friday in the northern Paris suburb of Stains, hospital officials and an Interior Ministry spokesman said.
French President Jacques Chirac before speaking to media yesterday
One of France's largest Muslim organisations, reacting to official suggestions that Islamist militants might be orchestrating some of the protests, issued a fatwa against the unrest, but violence reached new levels overnight.
In the most serious incident, youths at a housing estate in Grigny, south of Paris, ambushed police with rocks, petrol bombs and guns. Two policemen were seriously hurt by pellets shot into their neck and legs.
"This is real, serious violence. It's not like the previous nights. I am very concerned because this is mounting," said Bernard Franio, head of police for the Essonne area south of the capital, after about 200 youths attacked his colleagues in Grigny.
A policeman at the scene held up a shotgun cartridge for cameras. Rioters fired live rounds at police and fire crews on Wednesday night, but no injuries were reported.
The police union Action Police CFTC urged the government to impose a curfew on the riot-hit areas and call in the army to control the youths, many of whom are French-born citizens of Arab or African origin complaining of racism.
The violence began with the accidental electrocution of two youths fleeing police outside Paris and has spread to other towns and cities.
Mr Chirac, in his first public comments on the unrest, said last night that the state was determined "to be stronger than those who want to sow violence or fear".