THE French prosecutor for New Caledonia said a police officer had been taken into custody after shooting and killing a man after being set upon by about 15 people.

Yves Dupas says the officer is believed to have fired one shot, killing a 48-year-old man this afternoon. It’s the seventh shooting death reported since unrest erupted May 13 on the archipelago over contested voting reforms.

It comes a day after French President Emmanuel Macron made an emergency round-trip from Paris in an attempt to de-escalate the violence in New Caledonia, where Indigenous Kanak people have long sought independence from France.