BRUSSELS - The French government has established emergency ministerial committees to deal with the effects of the widespread looting and public damage in Paris and other key cities as the country experienced one of its worst bouts of civil disobedience in years.
Nearly 2,400 people were arrested during a frenzy of violence over the weekend, which also left 997 French police officers, paramilitary gendarmes, and firefighters injured. But despite a large-scale mobilisation, the law-and-order forces often appeared to be losing control of the streets to rampaging mobs of face-covered hooligans.