The riots engulfing immigrant-dominated suburbs across France claimed their first victim this morning with the death of a 61-year-old man beaten up by a hooded yob as he stood outside his apartment block.

The death came as police trying to keep the lid on France's worst civil disobedience since the student riots of 1968 counted the cost of an 11th night of violence.

A total of 1,408 cars were torched in towns from Normandy down to the Mediterranean coast, many more than on previous nights, and 395 people were arrested.

"The shockwave has spread from Paris to the provinces," said Michel Gaudin, head of the national police force.

Jean-Jacques Le Chenadec banged his head against a wall after being punched in the face on Friday night as he stood outside his apartment block in Stains, north of Paris, chatting with a neighbour. He slipped into a coma and died this morning.

News reports said that M Le Chenadec and his neighbour, who was badly hurt in the same attack, had had a run-in with a group of youths earlier on Friday evening.

Today M Le Chenadec's widow met Nicolas Sarkozy, the hardline Interior Minister, who promised her that all would be done to find and punish the unidentified man who carried out the assault.

Meanwhile, Dominique de Villepin, the Prime Minister, prepared to announce tough new measures to contain the violence, including fast-tracked trials, greater police numbers and, possibly, a system of curfews in hotspot areas.

The mayor of Raincy, near the epicentre of the riots northeast of Paris, has declared an exceptional curfew to “avoid a tragedy” in his town.

The unrest began in a Clichy-sous-Bois, north of Paris, after the deaths of two teenagers electrocuted when they climbed into an electrical sub-station, apparently as they were dodging a police identity check.

Since then schools, churches, warehouses and car dealerships have been set alight by rampaging youths, predominantly from France's large Arab minority.

Few regions of the country have been spared. There were riots last night in the southern towns of Toulouse, Toulon and Draguinan, in Strasbourg in the east and Nantes in the west. Even tourist centres such as Blois in the Loire valley and Quimper in Brittany have been hit by the violence.

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