The arson is France's worst rioting in more than a decade. (Reuters).

PARIS, November 4, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Young immigrants again on Thursday, November 3, stoned police and set cars ablaze as France's worst rioting in more than a decade raged for its eighth straight night with Interior Minster Nicolas Sarkozy saying that the violence was "perfectly organized."

In a worrying sign, the rampages that have gripped the poorer immigrant-populated outskirts of Paris since October 27 spread, for the first time, to other parts of the country, to Dijon, Marseille and Normandy, and inside the capital itself, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Overnight Thursday, more than 500 vehicles and several businesses were set on fire, and 78 people arrested in the Paris area, according to police.

Most of the arson happened in the low-income neighborhoods that lie well outside the city, far from its famous monuments and tourist sights, although seven cars were also burnt in poorer northern and eastern districts in central Paris.

The riots have also taken on an increasingly dangerous tone, with buckshot fired at riot squad vans -- and prosecutors revealing that a handicapped woman was deliberately set on fire the night before.

According to prosecutors Friday, November 4, the 56-year-old woman was unable to get off a bus targeted by a Molotov cocktail late Wednesday, November 2, in the northern Paris suburb of Sevran.

She was allegedly doused with petrol by one youth, then others threw a flaming rag on her. Rescued by the driver, she was taken to hospital with severe burns to 20 percent of her body.

The rioting -- sparked last week by the deaths by electrocution of two young immigrants who hid in an electrical sub-station in the northeast neighborhood of Clichy-sous-Bois to escape a police identity check, is the worst France has seen since the first troubles broke out in deprived high-immigration neighborhoods in the late 1980s.

Those responsible are sons of families from France's former Arab and African colonial territories, who have said in interviews that they are protesting economic misery, racial discrimination and provocative policing.

Speaking on French television late Thursday, Sarkozy said the violence was being orchestrated by unknown organizers.

"What we have been witnessing ... has nothing spontaneous about it. It was perfectly organized. We are trying to find out by who and how," he said.

The minister -- who has ambitions to become president after elections in 2007 -- also rejected accusations that his tough rhetoric had fuelled the rioters' anger.

He has described delinquent suburban youth as "racaille" or rabble, and said crime-ridden areas need to be "cleaned with a power-hose."

The violence has badly rattled the government of President Jacques Chirac, which is wavering between the "zero tolerance" policies of Sarkozy and calls for a more conciliatory approach to take account of the rioters' grievances.

More than 1,300 police were deployed in a vain attempt to restore order around Paris, following a vow from Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin that "I will not allow organized gangs to make the law in the suburbs."

Marine Le Pen, daughter of extreme-right politician Jean-Marie Le Pen and deputy leader of his National Front party, called for a state of emergency to be declared in the worst-hit areas.