The French authorities are prepared for possible violence tonight in the troubled northern suburbs of Paris, after riots last night that followed the death of two teenagers in a crash with a police car.

Twenty-five police officers were injured when bands of youths burnt cars and looted shops and buildings at Villiers-le-Bel after the teenagers, aged 15 and 16, collided with the patrol car while riding a small motorcycle. Eight men were arrested.

Witnesses on the ethnic estate that dominates Villiers-le-Bel blamed the police for the accident and accused the officers of failing to help the victims. The police said that the teenagers — who were not wearing helmets and were not qualified to be riding the unregistered dirt bike — had failed to give way to the car.

The police have, however, opened an investigation on suspicion of possible manslaughter and leaving the scene of an accident.

Michèle Alliot-Marie, the Interior Minister, urged all sides “to act responsibly” and promised a full inquiry.

Police and politicians fear that the accident could ignite more violence, in the way that the deaths of two boys in October 2005 triggered rioting across the northeastern suburbs and then in other French cities.

Didier Vaillant, the Mayor of Villiers-le-Bel , said: “I'm appealing to all inhabitants, and notably young people, so that we can get back to calm in our town. Since yesterday, we are in mourning. Last night, the town has suffered,” he said.

The opposition Socialist Party condemned the latest violence but also blamed the Government for failing to improve conditions on the run-down banlieue estates. François Hollande, the party leader, called the violence the result of “a social and political crisis” and deplored the “climate of suspicion, of hate, that can exist in many neighbourhoods”.

A Socialist spokesman said: “Since the riots of 2005, nothing has been done to remedy the problems of the banlieue.”

The main police union, the SGP-FO, said that there was “fire burning under the cinders” after last night's riots.

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