Four young Chinese women were injured and six Chinese-owned warehouses burnt down in French unrest that has continued unabated for 10 days.

The four, one from Beijing and the others from Taiwan, suffered burns and injuries in a blaze at the University of Franche-Comte in the east of France last Thursday, according to China News Service.

One woman from Taiwan had 80 percent burns while another had broken bones after jumping from a third storey to escape the fire.

Sources at a local hospital said that injuries to the Beijing woman, aged about 20, "were not very serious."

The fire left one person dead and 15 injured.

Local police confirmed the fire as arson but said: "It's not clear whether it is linked to the current unrest," which has reached central Paris from the suburbs.

Xinhua News Agency reported that the violence led to huge losses for Chinese businesses in France. Since Friday, six warehouses owned by Chinese have been razed.

Counselor Yu Chengtao at the Chinese Embassy in Paris has been in talks with French police, seeking safety and protection for Chinese citizens and their property.

Ten nights of urban unrest have seen thousands of arson attacks on cars and property.

On Saturday night, gangs of youths torched 1,300 vehicles in Paris' poor suburbs and major French towns, despite the deployment of thousands of extra police. Cars were burned out in the historic center of Paris for the first time the same night.

Some 2,300 police poured into the Paris region to bolster security while firefighters moved out around the city to douse blazing vehicles.

The deaths 10 days ago of two youths who were thought at the time to be fleeing police ignited pent up frustrations among young men, many of them Muslims of African origin, at their exclusion from French society and treatment by police.

(China Daily November 7, 2005)