Two people
were detained over days of rioting on the French Mediterranean island,
which saw demonstrators vandalise a Muslim prayer hall and set fire to
books including copies of the Koran.
Hundreds
marched through poor areas of the capital Ajaccio on Saturday for a
second straight day, shouting slogans such as "This is our home!" and
"Arabs get out".
Corsica's
administrator Christophe Mirmand announced a ban on all protests and
gatherings until at least January 4 in the poor Jardins de l'Empereur
housing estate, the epicentre of the violence.
But
hundreds took to the streets again on Sunday, dodging the ban by
marching through other Ajaccio neighbourhoods chanting: "We fight
against scum, not against Arabs!"
"We aren't thugs, we aren't
racists," they cried as they marched to the police station and then
through several low-income areas, before returning to the Jardins de
l'Empereur estate where they were blocked by police.
The unrest followed a
Christmas Eve clash in which two firefighters and a police officer were
injured at the estate, home to some 1,700 people, half of them of
non-French origin.
Regional
official Francois Lalanne said a fire had been deliberately lit in the
neighbourhood in a ruse aimed at "ambushing" the emergency services.
A
firefighter told French television that about 20 people armed with iron
bars and baseball bats had tried to attack them, but were unable to
smash through the windows of their truck.
Two men in their 20s were held in custody as part of a probe into the unrest."Their involvement in the attack against the firefighters is still under investigation," said prosecutor Eric Bouillard, adding the men had had brushes with authorities in the past.
The next day, 600 people gathered outside police headquarters in Ajaccio in a show of support for the police and firefighters. But some 300 broke away to head for the housing estate.
Shouting xenophobic slogans, the group smashed a Muslim prayer room, partially burning books including copies of the Koran, Lalanne said.
French
Prime Minister Manuel Valls wrote on Twitter that the break-in was "an
unacceptable desecration", while also condemning the "intolerable
attack" on the firefighters.
"This behaviour must stop. It hurts Corsica's image," Mirmand said.
On Sunday morning there were few people out on the streets of the estate, where residents were still reeling after the clashes.
"A fundamentally peaceful demonstration turned into racist violence," said one resident.
The unrest came as France remains jittery following the November 13 jihadist attacks in Paris that left 130 dead.
During regional elections in mid-December, Corsica's nationalist party won power for the first time.
The
population of France's lush Mediterranean "Isle de Beaute" (Island of
Beauty) increases by ten-fold during the peak tourist season.
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