Train station melee ends with 9 arrests

Riot police firing tear gas and brandishing truncheons clashed with youths who shattered windows and looted shops at a major Paris train station, French officials said. Nine people were arrested.

Officials said about 100 people were involved in the melee at the Gare du Nord. Officers, some with police dogs, charged at groups of marauding youths, some of them wearing hoods and swinging metal bars.

Transit officials said the violence started after a man without a Metro ticket punched two inspectors during a routine ticket check. But youths at the station said it started when police manhandled a young person of North African origin.