There also were car burnings in several other cities and an attempted arson at a library in a Toulouse neighborhood in southwestern France, The Independent reported.

President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was returning from a visit to China, was expected to hold an emergency security meeting Wednesday, the British newspaper said.

The New York Times said Tuesday there was no indication Sarkozy would try to mollify the suburb residents, only curb the violence.

Villiers-le-Bel exploded after two teenagers on a motorcycle were killed Sunday in a collision with a police car.

A police union official said the violence is worse than in 2005, when rioting spread from Muslim areas near Paris to other cities, The International Herald-Tribune reported.

"We have crossed a red line," said Joachim Masanet, secretary-general of the UNSA trade union's police wing. "When these kids aim their guns at police officers, they want to kill them. They are no longer afraid to shoot a policeman."

It's seen as a reaction to larger issues of poverty and lack of opportunity in suburbs with large minority populations.