PARIS — President Nicolas Sarkozy said Wednesday that rioters who shot at police would be brought to justice as the new wave of violence that rocked Paris suburbs appeared to ebb.

It was the first time Sarkozy, who had just returned from China, entered the fray since the rioting broke out Sunday night. The violence eased Tuesday night after police were deployed in force and quickly rounded up youths lobbing Molotov cocktails and setting cars ablaze.

“What has happened is absolutely unacceptable,” Sarkozy said after meeting with a wounded police captain hospitalized in Eaubonne north of Paris. Sarkozy arrived straight from the airport after returning from China.

Those who shot at officers “will find themselves in a criminal court,” Sarkozy vowed. “That has a name, it is an assassination attempt.”

Rioting erupted after the deaths of two minority teens whose motor scooter collided with a police car in Villiers-le-Bel, a blue-collar town on Paris’ northern edge. Residents claimed the officers left without helping the teens. But Prosecutor Marie-Therese de Givry denied that, saying police stayed on the scene until firefighters arrived.

The violence has drawn comparisons with riots that raged through suburbs nationwide in 2005, and has shown that anger still smolders in poor housing projects where many Arabs, blacks and other minorities live largely isolated from the rest of society. The 2005 riots also started in the suburbs of northern Paris, when two teens were electrocuted in a power substation while hiding from police.

Sarkozy is unwelcome in the projects where his hard line on crime and immigration has riled many. He was interior minister in charge of police during the 2005 riots and took a tough stance on the violence.

But even before those riots, he angered many in the projects when he called delinquents there “scum.” During his election campaign this spring, Sarkozy deftly avoided such neighborhoods, except for one carefully orchestrated blitz visit.

Sarkozy described the teens’ deaths as “distressing,” but said it was no excuse for shooting police.

He met with families of the two teens and told them that a judicial inquiry had been opened into their deaths, said their lawyer, Jean-Pierre Mignard. Such an inquiry would allow the parents to “participate actively in finding out the truth. Nothing will be hidden,” Mignard said.

Sarkozy also had a security meeting with his top ministers.

Didier Vaillant, mayor of the working class town of Villiers-le-Bel, asked Sarkozy to arrange meetings to address the “difficulties facing the suburbs.”

Among them are the long-held tensions between France’s largely white police force and ethnic minorities in poor neighborhoods. Heavy state investments have done little to improve housing and create jobs in the depressed projects that ring Paris, which feel a world apart from the glamorous tourist attractions a few miles away.

While cars were set ablaze for a third night Tuesday, officials said the violence was less intense than the two previous nights.

Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said the overall situation was “calm” but police presence would remain reinforced “as long as necessary.”

About 20 police officers were slightly injured Tuesday night, down from more than 80 the night before, said Patrice Ribeiro of the Synergie police union.

Some 138 cars were burned around France overnight Tuesday, which Ribeiro called almost “normal.” Police say as many as 100 cars are burned every night in scattered incidents around the country.

Youths lobbed Molotov cocktails and stones at police in Villiers-le-Bel but no firearms were used, Ribeiro said. On Monday night, rioters used shotguns raising fears the clashes could turn deadly.

The interior minister said 39 people were arrested in the Paris region Tuesday night. In the town of Verneil-sur-Seine west of Paris, eight people were arrested after trying to set fire to a bus, Ribeiro said.

In the southern city of Toulouse, 20 cars were set ablaze, and fires at two libraries were quickly brought under control, police said. In the town of Verneil-sur-Seine west of Paris, eight people were arrested after trying to set fire to a bus, Ribeiro said.

Four young people were convicted in fast-track trials Tuesday to several months in prison for participating in the violence.