According to ITAR-TASS, around 40 young men armed with iron bars, wearing masks and hoods, suddenly attacked a fire engine and a police unit. They then disappeared into the city, where they set fire to two administrative buildings, a car rental agency, and 16 vehicles. Police and gendarmerie reinforcements were called in, but so far they have not detained a single offender. According to the IHT, two people were injured: a police officer suffered cuts from shards of broken glass, and a firefighter injured his arm on a metal rod. *Calm returned to Saint-Dizier only at dawn. In the morning, Interior Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie arrived at the scene of the incidents. "We are trying to understand what caused this outbreak of violence," said the mayor of the town of 30,000, François Cornut-Gentille. "There have been disturbances here before, but never on this scale." http://newsru.com/world/05oct2007/fr.html * But the explanation is simple: these people simply like smashing and burning things. And they will keep doing it regardless of the size of the social benefits paid to them by French taxpayers.