Louise Bernard and Gauthier Delomez with AFP 09:39, November 26, 2021, modified at 09:42, November 26, 2021
Four journalists from BFM TV, AFP and Abaca Press were shot on Thursday night as they covered a roadblock during curfew in Martinique and were able to leave places on time.
It was men on two motorcycles who were responsible for the shooting.
Four French journalists, including an AFP photographer, were targeted by gunfire from individuals on motorcycles on the night of Thursday to Friday in Martinique, in a district of Fort-de-France, while 'they were covering 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.
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Journalists had time to leave the scene
Two journalists from BFM TV, Maureen Lehoux and Julien Taureau, AFP photographer Loïc Venance and Abaca Press photojournalist Raphaël Lafargue, were not injured and had just enough time to board their vehicle and to leave the premises in a hurry. The helmeted individuals did not follow them. "When getting into the car, there was a first shot. Then two more shots before we go," detailed Julien Taureau. "It was really a night like no other, our third night in a row. There, the city was empty and the atmosphere very heavy," recalls Maureen Lehoux. The two journalists see it as a sign of rising tension on the island.
AFP photographer Loïc Venance also recounts this agitated night.
"We got out of the car to film the dam 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: 'Damn there are motorcycles!' "
The police "were very tense"
"We had been touring the city for an hour and a half to testify to the violence. We met a lot of police officers who were telling us to come back. They were super tense. We said to ourselves: 'It's super calm, c 'is not normal' ", adds the photographer of AFP.
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 gunfire since Monday, slightly injuring many of them.
Security was reinforced ahead of the night from Thursday to Friday, "with a more mobile device and more to target the most difficult points", according to the prefecture.
Gabriel Attal denounces the shooting "totally unacceptable"
The shots aimed at journalists in Martinique on the night of Thursday to Friday are "totally unacceptable", said government spokesman Gabriel Attal on BFM TV.
"I want to pay tribute to them, we cannot accept in France (...) that journalists are targeted when they do their job, when they find themselves wiping live ammunition. It is totally unacceptable ( ...) Obviously absolute firmness in the face of these situations, "commented Gabriel Attal.