French police were preparing for another night of violence Tuesday after clashes struck the northern city of Amiens overnight, with rioters torching cars and a nursery school in a resurgence of urban unrest that has periodically roiled the country.

President Francois Hollande dispatched his Interior Minister Manuel Valls to the northern city, where two nights of violence were apparently sparked by tension over spot police checks on residents.

Guillaume Clement / EPA

Police officers take position during clashes in Amiens, France, on Tuesday.

Officials said 16 police officers were hurt in the disturbances, some struck by buckshot others hit by a hail of missiles thrown by around 100 youths who gathered in northern districts of Amiens.

One officer was in a serious condition, the city's Socialist Mayor Gilles Demailly told Reuters.

Speaking during a visit to southeastern France, Hollande said the state would "mobilize all its resources to combat this violence," which has shaken depressed quarters of major French cities at regular intervals.

Protesters burn cars, nursery school in France

"Security resources have sadly be declining for too many years," said Hollande. "Our priority is security which means that the next budget will include additional resources for the gendarmerie and the police." 

Reinforcements were being dispatched to the suburb, parts of which had already classified as a "priority security zone" in need of extra policing. The policy formed part of the Socialists' election campaign pledge on law and order.

The unrest was the first major law and order test for Hollande's ruling Socialists following his May election victory over conservative incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy, whose tough policies on crime and immigration some critics said fanned urban unrest.

Smoldering ruins  
During a night of disturbances, rioters set fire to a number of vehicles, in some cases hauling the drivers out of their cars before burning them, mayor Demailly said.

The riots on Monday night actually began Friday and continued every night since then. 

From 2005: France finds that not all Frenchmen feel French

Gutted buildings, including a nursery school, and burnt out cars were still smoldering early Tuesday, though the streets were otherwise calm. No-one has been arrested so far.

Valls, a law and order hardliner who irks some fellow Socialists, was dispatched to Amiens from southern France where he was on official business with Hollande.

Pascal Rossignol / Reuters

A man on a bicycle looks at a car destroyed in overnight clashes where groups of youths set cars, trash cans and a school ablaze in Amiens on Tuesday.

"This violence towards police, these buildings that were burned down, these people gripped by fear - this is unacceptable," Valls told reporters.

Some leftwing critics say his tough talk bears uncomfortable parallels with the strong line taken by Sarkozy.

From 2005: France to extend state of emergency

As mayor of a racially mixed suburb before being appointed to Hollande's government, Valls served more than 10 years ago as a spokesman for Socialist former Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, whose 2002 presidential election defeat was partly put down to his image as soft on law and order.

Tensions remain high in many French suburbs, where poor job prospects, racial discrimination, a widespread sense of alienation from mainstream society and perceived hostile policing have periodically touched off violence.

Weeks of rioting in 2005, the worst urban unrest in France in 40 years, led to the imposition of a state of emergency by the then center-right government. Incidents involving police provoked disturbances in 2007 and 2010.

The repeat bouts of violence have provoked agonized debate over the state of the grim housing estates that ring many French cities and the integration of millions of poor whites, blacks and North African immigrants into mainstream society.

NBC News' Nancy Ing and Reuters contributed to this report. 

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LONDON -- Graham Reeves carried his new bride Tina across the threshold of an apartment above his family's iconic furniture store after they married in 1981. He still has the keys to that home -- but the building is now an empty lot. 

One year ago, rioters rampaged through London and other U.K. cities, attacking shops to pillage electronics and expensive shoes, smashing up cars and buses and brazenly battling police officers in the streets.

Among them was an arsonist who set the House of Reeves furniture outlet ablaze. By the following morning, only a shell of the three-story building was standing. A business that had been in the family for five generations was left in ashes.

"[The keys] are at home, just in a drawer," the 53-year-old Reeves told NBCNews.com. "But obviously, there's no building to use for them. But I have kept them, because I just couldn't bear to chuck them out."

Study: British police say expect more riots

The businessman's bearded, stovepipe hat-wearing ancestor Edwin Reeves founded the store in south London's Croydon area in 1867. Post-riots, it still trades from a smaller outpost which – cementing its landmark status – sits across a road that bears the family name, as nearby trams glide to the Reeves Corner.

"How often do you have 60 percent of your business taken away from you in front of your eyes, by someone who you don't know, you've never seen, and you don't know what on earth's going on?" said Trevor Reeves, 57, as he stood where the century-old building once stood.

'Mindless criminal thugs'
The riots reached a crescendo the night House of Reeves burned down, but it started days earlier an hour’s drive due north across London.  In still-disputed circumstances, police shot dead Mark Duggan, 29, on August 4, 2011.  Two nights later, his friends and family demonstrated outside their local precinct. 

Slideshow: Riots break out in UK

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Riots spread to several English cities after police killed a 29-year-old man in Tottenham, north London.

Launch slideshow

In what became Britain's worst street violence for decades, that protest turned violent with riots erupting in the north London neighborhood of Tottenham before looting, arson and mayhem spread across the U.K. capital and beyond. 

From August 2011: The sad truth behind London riot

“What was a peaceful vigil held by a grieving family was hijacked by mindless criminal thugs,” acting London Metropolitan Police commissioner Tim Godwin said as the unrest intensified.  It erupted in pockets; some areas were left devastated, others untouched – though the tension was felt everywhere.

Prime Minister David Cameron cut his vacation short, returning to London to order all police leave cancelled so 16,000 officers could be deployed -- instead of the usual 6,000.

Police say 2,900 people have been charged in connection with the riots.

Facebook users jailed over 'riot that never was'

Wedding anniversary
Trevor Reeves’ father Maurice, now 81, recalled how he had just returned home celebrating his wedding anniversary with his wife Anne on Aug. 8 last year.

He had settled in to watch some TV when he saw it.  As married couples do, he and Anne started a debate; but this time it was whether or not the video of a massive building engulfed by flames – which was to become a symbol of the riots, played and replayed on every network - was their family's store.

Confronting the scene him nearly speechless. "I really don’t know what to say," he told reporters as looked on toward the charred ruins revealed by daylight. "It’s been through two world wars."

Millionaire's daughter convicted after driving London looters around during riots

Water-logged server
Gordon Thompson, 34, is serving 11-and-a-half years for the crime. During his February trial, the man who lived a few blocks from the store changed his plea to guilty after the prosecution presented its case, the BBC reported.

Among the evidence: footage showing the events unfold frame by silent frame. Captured by one of the Reeves family's own security cameras, it sat unwatchable on a water-logged computer server in the surviving building. 

Trevor Reeves said police technicians painstakingly dried it out over months – the files weren't able to be used until three weeks before the start of Thompson’s trial.

From August 2011: With a show of force and prayer, London fights back

Maurice Reeves, the fourth-generation figurehead, later came out of retirement to help move things on. 

His sons Trevor and Graham run the day-to-day operation. For the brothers, it’s not just business, it’s personal.

Trevor Reeves recalls playing in the now-razed three-story building as a child and getting "lost in the furniture."

"Mom and Dad could never find you," he added.

In the aftermath of the riots, Cameron blamed "social problems that have been festering for decades have exploded in our face." 

From August 2011: Where are the guns? A Texan's take on the UK riots

Speaking to NBC News' British partner ITV on Monday, the anniversary of the night the riots kicked into high gear, London's mayor admitted there was still much to be done.

"If you’re asking me, ‘Do we still have work to do to tackle the underlying causes?’ Then yes, absolutely," Boris Johnson said. "I’m not going to sit here and tell you all that can be solved with the wave of a wand."

Kerim Okten / EPA, file

Police officers detain suspected rioters in Enfield, North London, Britain, on August 9, 2011.

LONDON -- British police expect another outburst of rioting in London -- possibly even this summer as the country prepares to host the Olympic Games -- as economic hardship pushes more people towards social unrest, a study found on Monday.

Thousands of angry young people rioted through the streets of London and other big cities last August, looting shops and burning buildings, prompting pledges from government to crack down on crime.

The joint study by Britain's left-leaning Guardian newspaper and the London School of Economics was based on interviews with 130 officers caught up in the riots.

It found that the police expect more trouble but feel their ability to respond could be weakened by austerity measures. Last year a riot in north London, which started after a peaceful protest against the killing of a local man by police on August 4, triggered similar scenes across the country's capital and in cities such as Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool. 

Sad truth behind the London riot

"Police expect a repeat of the riots that spread across England last summer, and are concerned about whether they will have the resources to cope with future unrest on that scale," the study said.  "Officers said further disorder was likely, with many citing worsening social and economic conditions as the potential cause."

The government wants to make cuts of about 20 percent to police budgets. Like all public sector workers, officers also face pay freezes and higher pension contributions.

Meanwhile, security is under international scrutiny in London as it prepares to host the Olympic Games from July 27 when thousands of tourists and sports fans are expected to flock to Britain. 

No direct correlation? 
A former high-ranking member of London's Metropolitan police, the country's largest police force, cautioned against drawing a direct link between economic hardship and civil unrest.

"It is accurate to say that police funding is coming under a lot of pressure," Bill Tillbrook, the former head of the specialist firearms unit at the Met told msnbc.com. "But it is not as simple as saying that if there are fewer police officers, there will be more riots." 

Nevertheless, the study showed many of those interviewed felt more riots were likely or even "imminent." In a response it described as typical, the study said one superintendent from Manchester police said he expected more disorder "within the year." 

"I think if you have bad economic times, hot weather, some sort of an event that sets it off ... my answer is: yes, it could," he told the study. 

"Because I don't think anything has changed between now and last August, and the only thing that's different is people have thought: riots are fun." 

Photos: Riots break out in UK

Police were accused at the time of being too slow and ill-prepared in their response but many officers now feel budget cuts could only weaken their ability to deal with another wave of unrest, the study said. 

The vice chairman of the country's largest association of police officer agreed with many of the study's conclusions. 

"Clearly we are in an austerity program.  We are losing 20 percent of our budget over four years," Simon Reed told msnbc.com.  "And the since disorder have lost 5,000 officers."

Indeed, more painful measures are expected as the coalition government makes cuts to plug the budget deficit. Public sector borrowing is due to fall from about 128 billion pounds ($200 billion) last year to 98 billion in 2013/14. 

Al-Qaida to Occupy: UK preps Olympics security

The economy fell back into recession around the turn of the year and while overall unemployment has fallen in recent months, the rate of joblessness among those aged 18-24 remains as high as 19.9 percent. 

The HMIC independent police watchdog, in a report on Monday, said police forces planned to cut six percent -- 5,800 fewer officers --  of frontline roles as a result of spending cuts. 

"In addition, plugging the outstanding 302-million-pound funding gap might require a further reduction of officer numbers," it said. 

Msnbc.com's F. Brinley Bruton and Reuters contributed to this report. 

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Dan Kitwood / Getty Images

Laura Johnson, right, leaves Inner London Crown Court with her mother, Lindsay Johnson, Thursday in London, England, after she was convicted of burglary and handling stolen goods during the 2011 London Riots.

A millionaire’s daughter who drove London looters around during last summer’s riots was convicted Thursday of burglary and handling stolen goods, British media reported.

Laura Johnson, 20, of Orpington, had denied the charges, claiming she was acting under duress, the BBC reported.

However, prosecutors claimed Johnson was a “willing participant” in an Aug. 7-10 crime spree with a group that included her crack cocaine dealer boyfriend, the Daily Mail said.

The Inner London Crown Court jury saw pictures of Johnson laughing and joking behind the wheel of her car before finding her guilty of two charges but clearing Johnson of stealing and handling cigarettes and drinks from a BP gas station.

A 17-year-old codefendant, who was not publicly identified because of his age, also was convicted of one burglary and cleared of another.

Judge Patricia Lees said Johnson faces a likely jail term when she is sentenced May 3.

The offenses were “aggravated by the fact that they were conducted in the time frame of serious civil unrest in London last summer,” Lees said.

Riots flared in London following the police-shooting death of suspected gangster Mark Duggan on Aug. 4 and spread to Birmingham, Manchester and other cities. Police arrested 4,130 people during the civil unrest, which left five dead.

Johnson, a University of Exeter student, chauffeured looters wearing hoodies, bandanas and balaclavas, prosecutors said. The group loaded stolen electronic equipment into her car, they said.

Johnson set out early in the evening Aug. 7 to deliver a phone charger to her boyfriend, Emmanuel Okubote, 20, known as T-Man, prosecutors said. She was convicted of handling a TV looted from a branch of Currys at Stonelake Retail Park and stealing electronics from a Comet store in the Greenwich Retail Park, where she was arrested, the Telegraph of London reported.

Johnson began a close friendship with Okubote during the summer after being introduced to him by a friend she met while a mental health unit outpatient. Okubote is in Feltham Young Offenders Institution from an earlier a 30-month conviction for drug dealing, the Daily Mail said. He had been out on parole during the riots.

Police said Johnson told them that she had not refused to drive the looters because, "I didn't get the impression they were the sort of people you say no to."

Johnson’s parents, Lindsay and Robert, attended their daughter’s trial each day, the Daily Mail reported. They run the marketing firm Avongate, the Daily Mail said. Robert Johnson also is a director of several companies and was a director in a company that took over the Daily Sport and Sunday Sport newspapers in 2007, the newspaper said.

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Two men have been found guilty of robbing an injured student as they pretended to help him during last summer's riots in London - an act that was caught on camera and provoked outrage across Britain.

The pair were convicted of robbery and violent disorder, the BBC reported.

Their victim, Malaysian accountancy student Ashraf Rossli, 20, had been in the UK for just a month when he was attacked on 8 August 2011 in the east London district of Barking.

Handout pictures obtained from the Metropolitan Police show British teenager Beau Isagba (L) who was convicted in February 2012 of assaulting and stealing from a Malaysian student during last year's London riots, Reece Donovan (C) and John Kafunda (R) who were found guilty on March 2, 2012 of posing as Good Samaritans to steal from the student in an incident caught on camera. Kafunda was convicted of robbery and violent disorder. Donovan was convicted of theft, violent disorder and later robbing a supermarket.

Rioters had brought chaos to the streets with widespread violence and petty crime.

The Evening Standard newspaper reported that Rossli was on his way to a friend's house when his bicycle was stolen and he was punched, breaking his jaw in two places.

As Rossli stumbled along a road, covered in blood, John Kafunda, 22, and Reece Donovan, 24, appeared to help by steering him away from the violence - but instead from stole items from his backpack.

A portable Sony PlayStation games console, a wallet and other items were taken, valued at a total of $750 (£500).

Footage of the incident, captured on a mobile phone and circulated on the internet, prompted outrage in Britain where well-wishers raised more than $27,000 (£22,000) for Rossli to help him recover and continue his studies.

The Evening Standard report said judge at London's Wood Green Crown Court told the men they can both expect lengthy custodial sentences when they are sentenced on 13 March Last month, Beau Isagba, 17, was found guilty of assaulting Rossli and stealing his bike. He will be sentenced on 9 March.

Ch Supt Gary Buttercase, of the Metropolitan Police, said: "I have met Mr Rossli and he is a man of humility and dignity and a tremendous credit to his country."

Follow msnbc.com's Alastair Jamieson on Twitter.

Ming Yeung / Getty Images, file

Police patrol the streets on Aug. 8 in London, England.

Hatred of the police has been identified as a major reason behind the widespread outbreak of rioting in the U.K. in August.

The Guardian newspaper, in association with the London School of Economics, carried out a major investigation into why disorder broke out on such a wide scale.

They spoke to 270 people who rioted in the cities of London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Nottingham, Manchester and Salford, gathering more than 1.3 million words of first-person accounts.

"Rioters identified a range of political grievances, but at the heart of their complaints was a pervasive sense of injustice," the newspaper said. "For some this was economic: the lack of money, jobs or opportunity. For others it was more broadly social: how they felt they were treated compared with others. Many mentioned the increase in student tuition fees and the scrapping of the education maintenance allowance.

"Although rioters expressed a mix of opinions about the disorder, many of those involved said they felt like they were participating in explicitly anti-police riots. They cited 'policing' as the most significant cause of the riots," it added.

The Guardian published a timeline of interviews with those involved, showing how the rioting spread from a protest about the fatal shooting of a man, Mark Duggan, by police in Tottenham, north London, to a nationwide problem.

One rioter, involved in the Tottenham riot on Aug. 6, told how he decided to join in when he saw a police car being burned.

"It was the police car – I know what they stand for," he told The Guardian. "For the record: yeah, I do hate the f****** police ... I was caught up in the situation. And it was like: let's cause f****** chaos – let's cause a riot."

'We're bigger than the police'
Others then went to see what was happening and got caught up in the general feeling that the police were unable to stop the rioters.

"I think the looting came about because it was linked to police," another rioter, a 19-year-old student, told the paper. "We're showing them that, yeah, we're bigger than the police, we are actually bigger than the police. Fair enough, we are breaking the law and everything, but there's more of us than there are of you. So if we want to do this, we can do this. And you won't do anything to stop us."

Messages circulated on Blackberry phones in particular, saying where the next riots would be.

Gangs put aside rivalries to allow the rioting and looting to take place, some told The Guardian.

By Aug. 8, the rioting had spread outside London with the worst trouble happening in Birmingham.

"Firstly, it was just running into shops, pulling clothes off the hangers and running out again," a 16-year-old told The Guardian. "We seen some windows being smashed in. We just thought, everyone else is doing it. It just seemed like a good idea really."

He complained that the police "call us little s**** and little b******* and everything," he said. "They're not what you see on the TV and that – acting all good and that."

The teenager said he had stolen Nike track pants so he could feel like "people with money, good families." He said they looked down on him.

"I hate feeling like people are judging me," he told The Guardian. "They don't know about me and then they just look at you and I hate it, I absolutely hate it."

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