2005: the last time France's suburbs erupted in mass riots

After a third night of protests in France over a policeman's killing of a teenager, we look back at the last time multi-ethnic housing estates across the country erupted in rioting.

The three-week uprising over the deaths of two teens being chased by police in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois was the worst bout of civil unrest in four decades, and the first to be centred on the ghetto-like "banlieues".

- What happened? -

In the low-income northeastern Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois on October 27, 2005, two boys -- Bouna Traore, a 15-year-old of Malian background, and Zyed Benna, a 17-year-old of Tunisian origin -- were returning home from a football game when they saw a police car approach for an identity check and fled.

The two boys scaled the wall of an electrical relay station and were electrocuted as they tried to hide near a transformer. A 17-year-old friend who was with them suffered bad burns.

On hearing of their deaths, youths in the area rioted, burning vehicles, vandalising buildings and hurling stones and bottles at the police.

After several nights of clashes in Clichy-sous-Bois, the tension mounts on October 30 when fumes from a tear gas canister fired by police enter a mosque in the city.

The rioting spreads to surrounding estates in the Paris region, and then in early November to housing projects in other parts of France.

- What were the police accused of? -

Many young people in the estates accused the police of being responsible for the boys' deaths.

They said the boys' response to seeing a police car -- to run and hide, even though they had done no wrong -- was the result of years of racial profiling by police, targeting black and Arab-origin youth.

The two officers at the heart of the case were also accused of doing nothing to help Zyed and Bouna, despite knowing they were in danger when they saw them approaching the EDF power facility.

A court in 2015 cleared the officers of failing to assist people in danger.

- How did the government respond? -

Reacting after the first riots, prime minister Dominique de Villepin and interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy -- who would go on to succeed then-president Jacques Chirac as president -- suggested the two boys were thieves.

This contradicted statements from police who said they had not found evidence that they were involved in theft or damage to property.

Sarkozy also caused anger by saying that there was "nothing spontaneous" about the unrest and that non-French nationals convicted over the riots would be deported.

The interior ministry later said minors and other categories would be exempt from the rule.

- Was there much destruction? -

Over the three weeks of rioting, some 10,000 vehicles were torched and more than 200 public buildings destroyed or damaged, including schools, gymnasiums and shops.

At least 120 police and gendarmes were injured, some 5,200 people were arrested and more than 400 prison sentences handed out.

- How did it end? -

President Chirac declared a state of emergency across France on November 9. Local mayors were given powers to introduce curfews and ban public gatherings.

The emergency measures lasted eight days.

In the wake of the riots, the government ploughed tens of millions of euros into Clichy-sous-Bois and other disadvantaged neighbourhoods, in the form of building renovations and new housing constructions.

The government also promised a string of measures to improve access to education, jobs and housing for residents of riot-hit areas, but nearly 20 years later, many young people in housing estates still complain of rampant discrimination and racial profiling by the police.