A couple of days ago, my son sent me a link to several stories on this, here - Fresh violence hits Paris suburbs .

It is of particular interest to us because my brother happens to live in one of the affected suburbs - Aulnay Sous Bois. I immediately rang him to make sure he and his family were all right, and they are. He said it's a long suburb from end to end, and they live at the 'good end' fortunately for them. The other end is basically a slum area.

Reading the articles, it appears this is something which has been brewing for some time because of poverty and discrimination, and the incident where the youths were killed was the catalyst which set off the riots.