Police in riot-hit New Caledonia shoot man dead after Macron visit
- The officer used his gun as he and a colleague were attacked by around 15 people before the shot was fired, local media said, quoting the local prosecutor’s office
- The latest fatality was a blow to hopes for calm after Macron’s visit, which some officials had seen as heralding an end to more than a week of violence
A policeman in riot-hit New Caledonia killed a man on Friday after being attacked by protesters, as President Emmanuel Macron warned against the French Pacific territory turning into a new “Wild West.”
The latest fatality was a blow to hopes for calm after Macron’s visit, which some officials had seen as heralding an end to more than a week of violence that has now killed seven people.
Macron flew on Thursday to the southwest Pacific archipelago, located some 17,000 kilometres (10,600 miles) from mainland France, in an urgent bid to defuse a swelling political crisis over voting reform.
The killing of a 48-year-old man by police on Friday took the death toll from the unrest to seven, including two gendarmes.
This was the first time that a civilian had been killed by a member of law enforcement since riots broke out on May 13.
A police officer and his colleague were “physically attacked by a group of around 15 individuals” in Dumbea just outside the capital Noumea, forcing him to draw his weapon, said prosecutor Yves Dupas.
