Over 1,000 cars torched on New Year's Eve in France

FRANCE: The French Interior Ministry says over a thousand cars were set on fire and more than 300 people were arrested for vandalism across France on New Year's Eve. Interior Minister Manuel Valls said on Tuesday that 1,193 cars were torched, 339 people arrested and 244 were in custody after incidents on New Year's Eve. The last published figure of burned cars was 1,147 for New Year's Eve in 2009.

France's current Socialist government believes that total transparency of the incident is the best method revoking what former President Nicolas Sarkozy decided. While in office, Sarkozy did not publish the numbers of burned vehicles during 2010 to 2011 in an attempt to reduce crime.

The act of burning vehicles is a tradition that originated in the region around the city of Strasbourg in eastern France during the 1990s as a way to mark the arrival of the New Year.

Car torching in France does not only occur on the last day of the year. It has also been an expression of protest by despairing youths in poor French neighborhoods.

In the fall of 2005, police figures showed that 8,810 vehicles were torched in less than three weeks during nationwide unrest triggered by poor youths frustrated with high unemployment and police harassment and brutality.

PRESS TV