Squalid suburbs frighten Parisians

WHEN the Channel Tunnel rail service opens next month, passengers seeking France's seamier side could begin by looking through the windows as the high-speed train glides through the Paris suburbs.

In France, the word 'banlieue', or suburb, evokes poverty and violence.

Social crises in French urban sprawls are kept mainly to the outskirts, allowing the inner cities to retain their elegance. Except when the poor decide not to stay in the suburbs.

A report by the Paris region's town planning authority this week pinpointed 82 districts - all outside Paris proper - where social problems are at dangerous levels.

Security on the streets of Paris has become an issue after recent killings, such as the murder last Thursday of a cafe owner. Andre Fel was shot dead as he left his 15th arrondissement cafe, Le Diplomate, at 8pm. The attacker grabbed the money bag Fel was carrying to the bank.

The 15th arrondissement is considered quiet and middle- class. But local shopkeepers said that crooks were becoming daring, even insolent. Before Fel's murder, thieves who broke into a nearby Prisunic supermarket drank champagne in the manager's office before leaving.

In the west of the capital police last week said they feared a serial killer may be operating among prostitutes in the Bois de Boulogne. The park is a night-time hang-out for all forms of paid sex. Two transvestites were shot and killed two weeks ago and a female prostitute, aged 60, was wounded.

Paris has its traditionally difficult districts, such as Belleville, in the east. The population is largely poor and immigrant. But the crime arriving from the suburbs is spilling into previously unaffected areas. The typical suburb was built in the 1960s to house settlers returning from Algeria and immigrants. Many have turned into desolate slums. With the regional express metro putting outlying suburbs just 40 minutes from the centre, even the Avenue des Champs-Elysees has become a place feared for muggings and drug-pushing.

The worst black spot is the shopping centre that replaced the old food markets at Les Halles. Now it is known for its drugs trade. In August, police said eight hold-ups were committed by attackers wielding syringes said to be tainted with the HIV virus.