Those irrepressible “youths” in the suburbs of Paris are at it again, staging an organized attack on a passenger bus, then stoning firefighters when they arrived on the scene: Youths set passenger bus alight in Paris.

A band of up to 30 youths forced passengers out of a bus in a southern Paris suburb in broad daylight, set it on fire and then stoned firefighters who came to the rescue, a police official said.

Police cordoned off the neighbourhood in Grigny, in the Essonne region, after the attack, which came five days before France marks the one-year anniversary of the start of three weeks of fiery riots by poor suburban youths.

District police chief Jean-Francois Papineau called Sunday’s bus attack “deliberate”. He said the vehicle was forced to stop at a road block at about 2 pm. Two youths then entered the back of the bus to clear out passengers before dousing it with petrol and setting it ablaze.

The blaze gutted the bus and spread to four parked cars, Papineau told LCI television.

When firefighters arrived, the youths began stoning them, he said. No-one was injured. At least one person was arrested. The local prefecture said nearly 30 youths were involved in the incident.

UPDATE at 10/22/06 6:07:54 pm:

French police face ‘permanent intifada’. (Hat tip: Bill Amos.)

EPINAY-SUR-SEINE, France - On a routine call, three unwitting police officers fell into a trap. A car darted out to block their path, and dozens of hooded youths surged out of the darkness to attack them with stones, bats and tear gas before fleeing. One officer was hospitalized.

The recent ambush was emblematic of what some officers say has become a near-perpetual and increasingly violent conflict between police and gangs in tough, largely immigrant French neighborhoods that were the scene of a three-week paroxysm of rioting last year.

One small police union claims officers are facing a “permanent intifada.” Police injuries have risen in the year since the wave of violence.

National police reported 2,458 cases of violence against officers in the first six months of the year, on pace to top the 4,246 cases recorded for all of 2005 and the 3,842 in 2004. Firefighters and rescue workers have also been targeted — and some now receive police escorts in such areas.

On Sunday, a band of about 30 youths, some wearing masks, forced passengers out of a bus in a southern Paris suburb in broad daylight Sunday, set it on fire, then stoned firefighters who came to the rescue, police said. No one was injured. Two people were arrested, one of them a 13-year-old, according to LCI television.