SYDNEY, May 15 (Xinhua) -- The French high commissioner of the Republic in New Caledonia said that one person has been shot dead with two others wounded in the protests over proposed constitutional reform, Australian media reported on Wednesday.
Australian ABC News quoted the High Commissioner of the Republic Louis Le Franc as saying that of the three wounded admitted to emergency, one was dead, the victim of a gunshot.
According to the ABC News report, France had sent extra police squadrons to quell the unrest in New Caledonia after the French overseas territory was rocked by a night of protests against a controversial voting reform that has angered pro-independence forces.
Shots were fired at security forces, vehicles torched and shops looted in the disturbances, the report said, adding that this is the worst such violence in New Caledonia since the deadly unrest in the 1980s.
The high commissioner said that 47 gendarmes and 14 police officers were injured, and 180 people were arrested, according to New Caledonia media Nouvelle-Caledonie la Lere. ■
