French officials say that youths burned about twenty cars and stoned public transport overnight in working class suburbs of Strasbourg.

The violence broke out after a pop concert on Saturday night and repeated similar incidents in previous years over the Christmas and New Year period, despite expanded youth programs.

During the whole of last year five-hundred cars were burned in Strasbourg - a hundred more than the year before.

Correspondents say that youth violence in many cities across France has usually occured in poor immigrant neighbourhoods with high unemployment.