Skirmishes flare in Paris square after Sarkozy win

PARIS, May 6 (Reuters) Youths clashed with police in Paris's Bastille Square today and security forces fired tear gas at a crowd of several hundred protesters after conservative leader Nicolas Sarkozy was elected president.

Reuters reporters saw dozens of youths throwing bottles, stones and other missiles at police who responded with repeated rounds of tear gas and at least one burst of water cannon in the square, which is associated with leftist protests.

Demonstrators chanted ''police everywhere, justice nowhere.'' One scooter was set on fire.

The protesters did not appear to belong to any single group that could be identified. One carried a black anarchist flag.

The defeated Socialists portrayed Sarkozy as a danger for France during the election campaign, saying he was authoritarian and likely to exacerbate tensions in the poor, multi-racial suburbs that ring many cities.

Thousands of extra police have been drafted in to patrol sensitive areas today and a Reuters correspondent in the southeastern city of Lyon reported clashes between police and leftist sympathisers earlier in the evening.

Reuters ABM VP0342