Dozens of youths clashed with a police officer and set fire to rubbish bins in a Paris suburb after two teenagers were killed in a crash with a police car, a police source and a police union source said.

The two youths were riding on a stolen motorcycle when the accident happened yesterday in the town of Villiers-le-Bel, north of Paris, the union source said.

France's worst urban unrest in 40 years broke out in the northeastern Paris suburb of Clichy-Sous-Bois in November 2005, after two teenagers died electrocuted in an electricity sub-station after apparently fleeing police.

The circumstances in this case, however, were different.

"It was not a chase but apparently a traffic accident," the police source said.

A police officer who went to the scene was attacked by youths who had gathered there, some of whom were armed with iron bars. The burnt out wreckage of a car was visible on footage shown on French television.