The China Mail - Paris shop-owners and residents prepare for fresh protests

Sales of legal weapons on his shelves have "gone up 10 times" since the street violence that gripped the capital last weekend, Yves Gollet said.

Shop-owners "are arming themselves because they're very afraid", he said, showing that he was sold out of flash-balls, a weapon that fires non-lethal rubber projectiles.

Some of them "found themselves trapped in their shops with the looters", he said.

October 17 riots in Paris and other cities in France saw some 3,000 shops attacked, many of them looted, with the sector's trade body estimating costs running into hundreds of millions of euros.

The violence -- the worst France has seen in years -- occurred on the margins of nationwide demonstrations rallying more than half a million people against the high cost of living.

With new demonstrations called for Saturday, merchants have been busily covering shop windows with wooden barriers, hoping they can withstand another assault.

Such activity was especially prevalent along Boulevard Magenta, a shop-lined main road in the centre-east of Paris ransacked by masked mobs last weekend.

On sidewalks in parts of Paris, shattered glass from smashed windows and empty saline eyedrop containers, used to treat tear-gas irritation, still lay around.

In another Paris gun shop, a customer, who did not wish to be identified, said he had bought pepper spray, "in case looters come into the store" he owns, which sells eyeglasses.

- 'Apprehensive' locals -

While some armed themselves, others said they believed police deployments would be stepped up for the new demonstrations.

"Last Saturday was a horror show, I was afraid for my life," said a hairdresser, Jose Guedj. "But I don't believe for a second that it will be the same thing this Saturday."

The government, he said, "has taken into account what happened".

Behind him, the broken glass door to his salon was boarded up.

Emmanuel Renales, a 60-year-old owner of a paint store, was traumatised by the street violence of last weekend. Since then, he has taken to sleeping in his half-emptied shop.

"Next Saturday, it would surprise me if we open," he said. "I still can't understand why looters came to steal paint and tools."

According to the Paris police, 450 shops in the capital were vandalised and 228 were looted last weekend.

The city's municipal authorities have called for residents to be "extremely vigilant" on Saturday, and recommended that people with homes or shops "bring in your rubbish bins and bicycles, as well as outdoor furniture".

Pierre-Emmanuel Duprat, the head of an association of residents and shop-owners in the central Les Halles shopping neighbourhood, said: "We're apprehensive about what is coming, and the government's communication is not reassuring."

"Last Saturday, we remained inside for 12 hours because of the tear-gas," he said.

For the coming Saturday, he ventured a bit of optimism. "I'll bet that it'll be at a lower level, even if there will be some opportunistic crimes."

Laurence, an 82-year-old woman living in the district, said she preferred not to tempt fate, after being shocked by last weekend's violence.

She said she was going to spend the weekend away from the capital. "Sleep outside Paris and walk in a forest -- that seems like a good idea."

P.Deng--ThChM