By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Youths fired birdshot at police and hurled Molotov cocktails at churches, schools, cars and a daycare center in an 11th night of mayhem in France, while President Jacques Chirac promised to arrest and punish those who "sow violence or fear."
Ten riot police officers were injured by fine-grain birdshot in a clash with rioters late Sunday in the southern Paris suburb of Grigny, with two of them hospitalized, national police spokesman Patrick Hamon said. The two officers' lives were not in danger.
Overnight Sunday-Monday, at least 764 vehicles were torched, while police made 173 arrests, Hamon's office said. The situation appeared calm in Paris, where violence broke out the previous night, the local prefecture said.
"The law must have the last word," Chirac said Sunday after a security meeting with top ministers, making his first public address on the riots. France is determined "to be stronger than those who want to sow violence or fear, and they will be arrested, judged and punished."
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin promised speeded up trials for rioters and extra security during France's worst civil unrest in at least a decade.