NOUMEA: The French Pacific territory of New Caledonia was "calmer" on Friday, local authorities said, after reinforcements arrived to quell days of riots over voting reform that have left five dead and hundreds injured.
"Reinforcements will control areas that have got out of our hands in recent days," said French high commissioner Louis Le Franc, the highest-ranking state official in New Caledonia.
New military and armed police arriving in capital Noumea would allow authorities to "reconquer all the places in the city that we have lost".
Anger over France's plan to impose new voting rules has spiralled into the deadliest violence in four decades in the archipelago of 270,000 people, which lies between Australia and Fiji -- 17,000 kilometres from Paris.
French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said that about 1,000 extra security forces were being sent to New Caledonia -- adding to the 1,700 already present.
They began landing on Thursday at the French army-controlled La Tontouta International Airport and could be seen moving through the capital Noumea in red berets, toting rifles, gas masks and riot shields.
Using state of emergency powers, security forces had imposed "a calmer and more peaceful situation" around Noumea for the first time since the unrest started on Monday, the high commission said in a statement early Friday. But there were fires at a school and two companies, it added.
On Friday morning, journalists saw flames and smoke pouring from a shopping centre, smouldering buildings, dozens of burned-out cars and residents dragging the remnants of vehicles off the roads.
Hundreds of people lined up outside shops for desperately needed food and supplies, although authorities have promised to bring in essential goods.
Le Franc described areas of the island "where there are several hundred rioters waiting for just one thing: contact with the security forces".
New Caledonia has on three occasions rejected independence in referendums, but the cause retains strong support among the Kanak people, whose ancestors have lived on the islands for thousands of years. French lawmakers this week pushed forward plans to allow people who moved to New Caledonia at least 10 years ago to vote in the territory's elections.
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