PARIS, Nov. 9 (Xinhuanet) -- A total of 32 French local governors declared curfews in their towns or cities on Wednesday, among some 300 areas across the country ever hit by the latest violence at its peak.

    The French government decided Tuesday to invoke the 1955 emergency powers law to declare a state of emergency in 25 riot-hit departments and to give local officials, or prefects, the power to take curfews if they judge them necessary.

    Under the law, they can "forbid the movement of people and vehicles in places and times fixed by decree" and ban "meetings likely to provoke or fuel disorder".

    The law also allows to "order house searches at any time of dayor night" and to control "press and publications of all kinds", though French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin told parliament Tuesday that this clause would not be resorted to.

    A second decree published in the official gazette Wednesday listed all or part of 25 French departments, including all Paris region, where some clauses of the 1955 law apply.

    In these listed areas the interior minister can issue house arrests for people "whose activity is dangerous for public safety."

    The 1955 emergency powers law was enacted to calm disturbances in then French-controlled Algeria that triggered the Algerian war of independence.

    The resorting to the law came after 12 days of violence leavingmore than 6,000 cars burned. More than 1,500 people have been detained after the unrest was sparked on Oct. 27 in northeast Paris where two teenagers were accidentally electrocuted to flee police identity check.

    Overnight Tuesday 617 vehicles were torched across the country,nearly half of the figures on the previous night. Enditem