French troops try to restore order in crisis-hit New Caledonia
The Peninsula
Noumea: Hundreds of French security personnel tried to restore order in the Pacific island territory of New Caledonia on Saturday, after a fifth night...
Noumea: Hundreds of French security personnel tried to restore order in the Pacific island territory of New Caledonia on Saturday, after a fifth night of riots, looting and unrest.
Bands of heavily armed French marines and police patrolled the capital Noumea, where streets were filled with debris from another night of violence that had already killed five people and injured hundreds.
AFP reporters in the city's Magenta district saw vehicles and buildings burned, with a phalanx of riot police trying to reassert government control.
Overnight, residents reported hearing gunfire, the drone of helicopter rotors and "massive explosions" -- what seemed to be gas canisters blowing up inside a building that was set alight.
Helene, aged 42, told AFP that she and neighbours had been manning makeshift barricades in two-to-three-hour shifts, as they waited for thousands of French security forces being flown 17,000 kilometres (10,600 miles) to impose order.