Such incidents are not uncommon in the northern Paris suburb, where 36 per cent of residents were born overseas. The weekend before the “Allahu akhbar” torching, a bus driver and his passengers had to vacate the vehicle after people blocked it with a barricade of burning garbage. Windows of the bus were broken but no one was hurt.
Saint-Denis’ mayor Didier Paillard, of the Communist Party, said: “This act of premeditated vandalism, the consequences of which could have been tragic, follows an attempted homicide on a worker by a Molotov cocktail on July 22 and buildings being looted.” -- More...