Government applies a state of emergency; rioting persists

PARIS -- The government's declaration of a state of emergency yesterday enabled police to impose curfews and other extraordinary measures to combat the worst riots in recent history.

President Jacques Chirac's Cabinet decided at a special meeting to invoke an emergency powers law that has only been used once since first wielded during the Algerian war of independence against France 50 years ago.

In many areas, rioters seemed to have ignored the security measures, which began today. Two superstores were looted and burned, a newspaper office was set afire, a newspaper office was also set ablaze, and shut down the subway system in Lyon, France's second largest city, with a gasoline bomb. No one was reported hurt in the Lyon attack. Also late Tuesday, rioters looted and set fire to a furniture and electronics store and an adjacent carpet store in Arras, in the northern Pas-de-Calais region, and set fire to the Nice-Matin newspaper's office in Grasse, in the Alpes-Maritimes, which is in the French Riviera.

Nine buses were set ablaze at a depot in Dole, in the eastern region of the Jura, and a bus exploded in Bassens, near the southwestern city of Bordeaux after a gas bomb was thrown into it. The measures, valid for 12 days, clear the way for curfews after almost two weeks of riots in impoverished, largely Muslim, areas.

As of midnight last night, police were authorized to declare curfews, restrict the movement of people and vehicles, authorize searches, and place suspects under house arrest.

''For . . . 12 days, searches will be possible every time we suspect possession of weapons," said Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy.

Sarkozy is the point man in an attempt to restore order. He said the measure will help ''systematically apprehend troublemakers and systematically prevent a spread of violence."

Although arson attacks and street clashes continued last night and into early today in cities such as Toulouse and Lille, the violence appeared to abate nationwide on its 13th day, authorities said. The number of communities hit by disturbances declined from 300 to 226, according to Michel Gaudin, the director of the national police. The number of vehicles burned overnight dropped by 235, for a total of 1,173, he said.

Weary police chiefs felt the tide was turning against rampages, which have lost intensity in the region around the capital.

After the initial outbreak last month in immigrant suburbs north of Paris, the riots spread across the provinces as youth gangs appeared to have sought to imitate the mayhem that was shown on their television screens, said a police commander based in Lyon. He predicted that calm would soon return to his area in south-central France.

''I think that in a few days it will be under control," said the commander, who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons. ''We have had problems here -- cars, schools, buses burned. But not that many direct attacks on police.

''The youths are in competition with other neighborhoods and cities. It's like a game," he added. ''They are imitating what they see on television."

Nonetheless, police and intelligence officials worry that anger in the riot zones will smolder for a long time, susceptible to new flare-ups.

Moreover, the police will have to face youthful vandals emboldened by their exploits of the past weeks, as well as gangsters and Islamic extremists, many of whom who have been suspected of inciting troubles in some areas to gain turf.

Chirac's decision was not taken lightly in this country, which gives its security forces great power, but which also values its traditions of liberty and human rights.

Material from the Associated Press was included in this report.