Four French journalists, including an AFP photographer, were targeted by gunfire from individuals on motorcycles during the night of Thursday to Friday in a district of Fort-de-France in Martinique as they covered the nighttime urban violence on the island.
Journalists were shot three times in a deserted street due to the strict curfew decreed Thursday evening.
Men on two motorcycles shot at journalists who were filming and taking pictures from a distance from a burning dam.
AFP photographer Loïc Venance, two journalists from BFMTV / RMC Sport, Maureen Lehoux and Julien Taureau, and a photojournalist from Abaca Press, Raphaël Lafargue were not injured and had just enough time to get on board from their vehicle and to leave the scene in a hurry.
The helmeted individuals did not follow them.
“We got out of the car to film the roadblock from afar.
We were near the Levassor canal, very close to the marina, a rather quiet place these last days.
We were alone.
I saw two motorcycles stop.
I shouted: "Fuck there are motorcycles!"
», Said Loïc Venance.
"A night like no other"
The journalists had heard that armed men on motorcycles came to provoke the police during the nightly violence. “When we got into the car, there was a first shot. Then two more shots before we go, ”detailed Julien Taureau. “We had been touring the city for an hour and a half to witness the violence. We met a lot of policemen who told us to go home. They were super tense. We said to ourselves: "It's super calm, it's not normal," reported the AFP photographer. “It was truly a night like no other, our third night in a row. There, the city was empty and the atmosphere very heavy, ”recalls Maureen Lehoux.
Martinique has been plagued by nighttime urban violence since the call for a general strike launched Monday by the inter-union, to protest in particular against the vaccine obligation.
Several police officers have been the targets of fire since Monday, slightly injuring many of them.
Security was reinforced before the night from Thursday to Friday, "with a more mobile device and more to target the most difficult points", according to the prefecture.
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