Thirty cars and several businesses were torched in a neighbourhood of southeastern French city of Grenoble, where rioters exchanged gunfire with police setting fire to shops and cars after police shot dead a man accused of robbing a casino.

GRENOBLE, France – French police Sunday arrested four men for attempted homicide following two nights of rioting in the Alpine city of Grenoble that saw youths open fire at police and torch scores of cars.

The first riots erupted late Friday night after the funeral of a 27-year-old man, Karim Boudouda, who was shot dead by police on Thursday when he fired at them in a chase after he allegedly robbed a casino.

A public prosecutor concluded police had fired in self-defence.

Four men were seized in a dawn raid on Sunday for attempted murder after they allegedly shot at officers during the worst of the rioting in the early hours of Saturday in the working class district of La Villeneuve, police said.

Police did not identify those arrested or give their ages.

In all, police have taken into custody 20 people since the outbreak of the violence.

But officers said that several of those arrested would not face charges.

No one was reported hurt in the unrest.

Among those detained are three youths set to go before a judge on Monday for looting a shop; and a minor accused of setting fire to a vehicle, a police source said.

District police official Brigitte Julien told reporters on Sunday that more bullets were fired at police on Saturday night.

Police returned fire with rubber bullets and “Flash Balls”, which fire rounds that are designed to stun rather than kill.

Saturday night was judged calmer overall, with about 15 cars burnt compared to 60 in the previous night’s rioting.

Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux visited the scene in the southeastern city nestled in the French Alps on Saturday and pledged to quickly restore order.

“There’s no future for hoodlums and delinquents because in the end the public authority always wins,” he said.

On Sunday Mr. Hortefeux ordered local authorities to convene a meeting this week aimed at ensuring stability in Grenoble and examining the underlying issues of youth violence.

The meeting will also discuss the fight against the underground economy, the co-ordination of different public services and putting in place video protection, especially in vulnerable neighbourhoods, the minister said.

The authorities were expected to maintain a major police presence in the area, with reinforcements of some 300 officers from national police forces, until Wednesday.

The mother of the suspect killed by police, Saliya Boudouda, appealed for calm in Sunday’s edition of a local paper, Le Dauphine Libere.

But she told AFP she would be lodging a complaint and demanding an investigation into the circumstances surrounding her son’s death.

“They messed up, the cops,” she told AFP by telephone. “I am going to see the prosecutor and lodge a complaint.”

Disturbances including car burnings are not rare in some of France’s deprived suburban districts, which suffer from tension between the largely immigrant populations and police.

In October 2005, weeks of rioting broke out in suburbs across France, sparked by the death of two youths who were electrocuted when they entered an electricity installation as they ran away from police in suburban Paris.