Nov. 6 (Bloomberg) -- French police arrested 349 people overnight as gangs burned cars and buildings for the 10th consecutive night in Paris suburbs, other cities around France, and, for the first time, within the city of Paris itself. Nearly 1,300 vehicles were set ablaze across the nation.

The number of arrests rose from the 253 taken into custody on the night of Friday, Nov. 4, said Patrick Hamon, a spokesman for the police. Of the 1,295 vehicles that were burned, 771 were in the Paris region, Hamon said. In addition, 32 cars were destroyed by fire and 19 others damaged within Paris, mainly in the 17th arrondissement in the north of the city, as well as in the 3rd arrondissement.

``There continues to be a slight widening of these riots,'' Hamon said, adding that this is the longest stretch of urban violence since students rioted in 1968 in central Paris. ``In those areas where there is a strong police presence, things are leveling off.''

The violence reflects tensions in French neighborhoods marked by youth unemployment of more than 30 percent and large immigrant Muslim communities in the majority Catholic nation. The violence is also spreading beyond those areas. Last night, violence struck Toulouse, Nantes, several parts of northern France and the town of Evreux in Normandy, where 53 cars were burned and a shopping center attacked. There were 21 policemen injured last night, nearly all minor, Hamon said.

`Fight the Police'

``In Evreux, some of these youths didn't just try to break and burn things, they also wanted to fight the police,'' said Jean-Louis Debre, president of France's parliament and mayor of Evreux, on France Info radio. ``What do you want? To live in a more just, caring society? This isn't how to do that.''

In Paris, 30 people were arrested, including 11 in the act of building firebombs, a spokeswoman for the Paris police said, who refused to provide her name. Of the 30, 14 remain in custody, she added.

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin yesterday met with eight ministers, including Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy discuss the violence. More than 700 people have been arrested and more than 3,500 vehicles have been torched since Oct. 27.

``We will bring order and calm back to these regions that were too long abandoned,'' Sarkozy wrote in a column in the French daily Le Monde today. ``Everywhere in this republic, and not just the nice neighborhoods, the French have a right to live in safety.''

`Restore Order'

``Our first priority is to restore order,'' said Catherine Vautrin, secretary of state for immigrants and equal opportunity, on the LCI television station late yesterday.

Francois Hollande, secretary general of the opposition Socialist party, called for a parliamentary debate on the riots.

``We ask for it so we can know what is happening and what the government is doing to bring order,'' Hollande said on Europe1 radio.

The first riots erupted after two boys, aged 15 and 19, one of Tunisian origin, the other from sub-Saharan Africa, were electrocuted on Oct. 27 by high-voltage equipment in an electricity substation where they took refuge because they were being pursued by police, their families said. The police denied there was any pursuit. The public prosecutor's office said it has opened an investigation into the case.

Calls for calm by President Jacques Chirac have largely been ignored. Chirac gave de Villepin a month to report on measures to integrate ethnic minorities and promote equal opportunity. He also called for a plan to crack down on youth gangs.

Unemployment

Joblessness in France is 22.2 percent for men under 25 years old, compared with 7.8 percent for men aged 25 to 49, according to the Labor Ministry. France doesn't include ethnicity in its census nor does it publish poverty or unemployment statistics based on ethnicity or religion.

Among 20- to 24-year-olds living in French suburbs whose residents are predominantly Muslim, the jobless rate during the 1999 census was 37.2 percent for men, compared with the national average of 22.5 percent, and 39.5 percent for women, compared with 28.4 percent. The figures come from a 2003 report for the prime minister by the High Council for Integration.

Beginning just after World War II, France allowed in hundreds of thousands of manual laborers from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. They settled mostly in housing projects, which were specially constructed for them, outside Paris, Lyon, Marseille and other large cities. France's population of immigrants more than doubled from 1946 to 1999.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alan Katz in Paris at akatz5@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 6, 2005 07:51 EST