Hundreds of French youths torched buildings and cars and clashed with police, injuring 16 officers during an overnight riot in the northern French city of Amiens.

French police reported that the clashes involved some 100 rioters and 150 officers, beginning around 9pm Monday and ending around 4am Tuesday.

At least three bystanders were hurt after rioters pulled drivers from their cars while hijacking the vehicles, the AP reported.

“The confrontations were very, very violent,” Amiens Mayor Gilles Dumailly told French television network BFM.

One of the events that sparked the riot was an arrest made over the weekend for dangerous driving, French media reported. The arrest was seen by many locals as insensitive and unnecessarily violent, as residents were attending a wake for a 20-year-old who died in a motorcycle accident.


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