Hundreds of people including "around 100" police and gendarmes have been injured in unrest in the French overseas territory of New Caledonia, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Wednesday, May 15.
Additionally, one person was shot dead and two others wounded on Tuesday night as violent protests and looting rocked the French Pacific territory, according to the French high commissioner for New Caledonia.
"Of the three wounded admitted to emergency, one is dead, the victim of a gunshot," High Commissioner of the Republic Louis Le Franc told reporters, adding that the deceased was not shot by the police or gendarmes but "by someone who clearly wanted to defend themselves."
Darmanin said that authorities were yet to establish the "circumstances" that led to the lethal shooting, and that dozens of homes and businesses had been torched during rioting linked to anger over constitutional reforms.
Le Franc described the unrest as "insurrectional." "This is a time for appeasement... it is essential to call for calm." Le Franc said there were "shotgun exchanges between rioters and civil defense groups" in the capital Nouméa and its suburb of Paita. There was also an attempt to storm a gendarmerie station. Security forces arrested 140 people in and around the capital on Tuesday night.