Chirac Calls Emergency Meeting of Top Ministers

President Jacques Chirac called an emergency meeting of his top ministers last night as urban unrest escalated further, touching the historic heart of Paris for the first time.

Late last night rioters shot and injured 10 police officers, two seriously, when security forces confronted 200 stone-throwers. One officer was treated in hospital for shotgun wounds to the throat, and another for leg wounds. The gunmen were among crowds attacking police in Grigny, south of Paris.

Rioting was once again widespread. Youths seized a bus in Saint-Etienne, in southern France, ordered passengers off, and torched the vehicle; its driver and one passenger were hurt, officials said. In Rouen, in the north, rioters pushed a burning car against a police building; nobody was hurt, police said. Cars were also burned in Nantes, Rennes and Orleans.

A national police spokesman said a total of 2,200 cars were burned around the country on Friday and Saturday nights, including in previously untouched cities or towns like Nantes in the west, Avignon in the south and Evreux in Normandy.

Residents and local officials vented both anger and frustration as the violence, set off by the accidental deaths of two youths 10 days ago, continued to spread despite repeated pleas for calm.

Almost 550 people were arrested over the weekend - mostly black African youths aged 14 to 25 in depressed city suburbs. Police used seven helicopters over greater Paris to film disturbances and to direct nearly 4,000 officers. But one interior ministry official admitted it was "very hard" to counter small, highly mobile bands of youths, who communicate by mobile phone and are intent on causing "maximum material damage" while avoiding "all confrontation with the police". After 50 cars, a post office, two schools, and a shopping centre were destroyed in his town, Jean-Louis Debré, the conservative mayor of Evreux, said: "Fewer than 100 people have smashed everything and wreaked desolation. They are not part of the same universe as us."

Evidence emerged that the rioters, if not organised on a national scale, were coordinating locally: police in Evry, south of Paris, found a petrol-bomb factory.

Mr Chirac came under pressure to address the nation. The left demanded interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy resign, accused of inflaming passions by calling troublemakers "yobs" and "scum". Many rioters say they are determined to make Mr Sarkozy pay for his "insults". A poll yesterday found 57% (and 78% of rightwing voters) approved of his overall approach, 62% believed he was trying to resolve things; however, 63% felt he used language "shocking" for a minister.