Four French police officers were injured in a southern Parisian suburb on Sunday by masked youths, the French interior minister, Michelle Alliot-Marie, reported.

The police were called in Grigny after two men were reported to have vandalized a local bakery. When the police arrived, approximately 30 armed people started to fire shotguns containing lead shot and nails at the police, Michelle Alliot-Marie said. Others were throwing stones and Molotov cocktails. They even set fire to a car.

Three of the policemen were hit in the face with shotgun pellets and were treated at the site, while another was hit in the leg by shot and nails. He was hospitalized, the Press Association reports.

The situation was brought to normal an hour and a half later and the attackers dispersed, after police back-ups were sent at the site.

Ms Alliot-Marie called for “all means to be used to identify, apprehend, and bring to justice the authors of these criminal acts” and for them to face “exemplary sentences,” BBC News reported.

France witnessed riots in November when approximately 60 police officers were injured in shootings in a suburb in the north of Paris, Villiers-le-Bel.

Pursuant to the raids performed by police in February, more than 30 people were arrested, being suspected of involvement in the November rioting. 

In 2005, the French government called for a state of national emergency after riots at housing estates broke out in more than 30 towns and cities and lasted for three weeks.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced last month a plan to provide stability and prevent riots in the ethnic-minority suburbs. He presented a three-year proposal to detach 4,000 more police officers in the suburbs.

His plan also referred to finding work for 100,000 people and fighting drug dealers “without mercy.”