FORT-DE-FRANCE, France (AFP)— New riots in the French Caribbean island of Martinique saw one person killed by gunshot wounds, 12 police injured, and stores looted, authorities said Thursday.
The island of 350,000 people has been shaken in recent weeks by violent protests over high prices.
During a new night of troubles from Wednesday to Thursday, protesters looted shops, erected burning barricades, and clashed with police.
The local prefecture said one person died of his wounds after being shot, but that police did not open fire during the night.
The wounded person was discovered by police responding to reports of looting at a shopping center in the town of Robert. The victim was declared dead in hospital and a probe was launched, the prefecture said.
A source told AFP, citing preliminary information, that 12 gendarmes received minor injuries, including one wounded by gunfire.
According to the source, at least three stores and several car parks were set ablaze.
Clashes continued into the night and burnt-out cars blocked traffic on one main road in Fort-de-France, the island’s main city.
Footage circulating on social networks showed a burning barricade on the ring road in Fort-de-France, and projectiles being thrown at vehicles trying to go around it.
At 6:00 am (1000 GMT), firefighters were still putting out smoking roadblocks in the city, an AFP journalist saw.
Schools on the island remained closed on Thursday.
On Wednesday, four police were “slightly injured” in the town of Carbet during efforts to dismantle a roadblock, the prefecture said.
Residents of France’s overseas territories have long complained about the high cost of living. In Martinique, food prices are 40 percent higher than in mainland France.
The protests were launched in early September by the Assembly for the Protection of Afro-Caribbean Peoples and Resources (RPPRAC), which demands that food prices be aligned with mainland France.
The violence led authorities to impose a nighttime curfew, now lifted, in several neighbourhoods of Fort-de-France and Lamentin