Night bus explodes as gang of Paris youths hijack city vehicle

A group of Paris youths have been filmed terrorising a bus driver and passengers after they blocked the vehicle's path and firebombed it.

The gang was covertly filmed last week from a nearby building in the working class neighbourhood of St Denis, but the video has only today been released.

A line of wheelie bins were placed across the darkened street, which forced the 170 night bus to halt its journey shortly after midnight.

The driver and five passengers were then ordered off the bus and the gang threw incendiary devices into the marooned bus, radio station France Bleu 107.1 reports.

Nobody was injured in the incident, though the bus, which is seen engulfed in flames, was completely destroyed.

The attack may have been linked to recent unrest and protest over Adama Traore, a 24-year-old from the northern neighbourhoods of Paris who died in police custody.

Cars were set alight and public property vandalised as locals reacted angrily to police claims that Traore had contracted a serious infection and fainted after being arrested, The Guardian reports.

His brother Bagui, who was taken into police custody at the same time, claimed to have seen Adama lying bloodied and lifeless on the floor of the police station, surrounded by a group of officers.

An autopsy stated Adama's body showed few signs of being manhandled in an aggressive way, a claim the family disputes.