French authorities maintained a night curfew amid fresh unrest on the Caribbean territory of Guadeloupe on Saturday as they battled to restore power they accused striking energy workers of sabotaging.
Guadeloupe and the nearby French island of Martinique have seen weeks of often violent protests over the cost of living. A night curfew has been in force in Martinique for 16 days because of unrest there.
French authorities kept Guadeloupe under curfew for a second night “to guarantee safety and tranquility” after the island’s power was completely cut on Friday.
But pillagers took advantage of the blackout to ransack Guadeloupe’s commercial center Pointe-a-Pitre.
Looters busted through the windows of several stores with an excavator, in images filmed and published on social media, with some 50 people then piling in to snatch the contents.
“This is the second time in three years that my shop has been gutted,” said jewelry shop owner Carole Venutolo, her voice choked with grief and anger.
Police said they were fired on with live ammunition, with bullets twice hitting one of their vehicles.
The EDF power company said that two-thirds of the 380,000 people hit by a blackout had electricity again. Authorities accused striking workers of blocking the Jarry power station’s engines and cutting electricity to the island.
Regional government chief Guy Losbar said he was “outraged” by the workers’ actions.
Authorities in Martinique, which has a population of about 350,000, said that despite the curfew around 50 masked “troublemakers” had set up burning roadblocks in two districts.
On previous nights, shots have been fired, trucks stolen and petrol stations looted, authorities said.
