French police under fire in suburbs

The French police is under fire during the riots in the suburbs of Paris.

The interior minister, whose open ambition to run for president in 2007 had been boosted by a decline in crime and delinquency on his watch, visited police in one of the embattled suburbs, Bobigny, overnight.

One officer told him that "two real bullets were fired" at riot police in La Courneuve but did not hit their targets. The riot squads themselves were using rubber bullets when they felt threatened by advancing mobs.