Police banned any gathering that might provoke disorder in Paris this weekend, saying they had been warned violence was planned for Saturday after two weeks of rioting across France, Reuters reported. The intensity of France's most serious unrest in four decades has dropped since President Jacques Chirac's government adopted emergency measures including curfews on Tuesday to curb unrest by youngsters complaining of racism and unemployment. But there was a rise in violence in suburbs of the capital overnight. Police said 463 vehicles were set on fire across France, a slight fall from the previous night, but the number of vehicles torched in the areas around Paris rose from 84 to 111. "This confirms the downward trend overall, with some resistance in the Paris region," national police chief Michel Gaudin told reporters on Friday. "This weekend we will exercise extra vigilance in the Paris region." Police said the Paris ban would run from 10 a.m. (0900 GMT) on Saturday to 8 a.m. (0700 GMT) on Sunday. Some 3,000 police officers were mobilized in the capital, and forces were increased in other French cities, police said. Bomb squads with police dogs were out in force and riot police looked on as Chirac attended remembrance ceremonies at the Arc de Triomphe in central Paris to commemorate Armistice Day, which marks the end of World War I in 1918.
