Rioting continued in Paris suburbs for an eighth night in succession and for the first time spread to towns outside the French capital, including Dijon in the east of the country.
Police said some 500 cars were set on fire, mostly in the Paris region, while 27 buses went up in flames at a depot to the west of the city. 78 people were arrested.
There were fewer overnight clashes between police and 'troublemakers' than on Thursday, but several businesses in the Seine-Saint-Denis district were set on fire and a large carpet warehouse near Charles De Gaulle Airport was burned out.
In the eastern city of Dijon several cars were set alight, while similar attacks took place in the western Seine-Maritime region and the Bouches-du-Rhone in the south of the country.
The immediate cause of the riots was the accidental electrocution of two teenagers who had hidden in an electricity sub-station to escape a police identity check in the suburb at the centre of the trouble, Clichy-sous-Bois.
Political efforts are being made to address the issue, but commentators blame the violence on the failure of successive governments to deal with the problem of low-income, high-immigration ghettos.
