Emmanuel Macron canceled a trip to northwestern France to chair a meeting of the Defense and National Security Council still in the morning, in Paris, according to the French agency AFP.

The representative of the French Government in New Caledonia, High Commissioner Louis Le Franc, confirmed the death of two people in the last hours in the riots that have shaken the territory since Monday.

The protests were triggered by the approval of a constitutional reform bill by the French National Assembly, on Tuesday night, rejected by the pro-independence movement.

The first victim of the riots, the most serious since the 1980s, was shot dead "by someone who certainly wanted to defend himself," announced Le Franc.

A second person also died during the night, Le Franc confirmed later, without giving further details.

"We are in a situation that I would describe as insurrectional," said the French representative in the territory colonized in the mid-19th century.

Hundreds of people were injured, including "about a hundred" police officers and gendarmes, according to French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin.

Emmanuel Macron previously denounced the violence in New Caledonia as "outrageous and unacceptable".

Despite the curfew in Noumea, the territory's main city, the violence resumed at nightfall on Tuesday, with numerous fires, looting and exchanges of fire, including against the security forces.

Louis Le Franc reported "exchanges of fire between rioters and civil defense groups in Noumea and Paita".

Two people were also shot and injured in Ducos, northwest of Noumea, "by a garage owner who was protecting his business," said Vaimu'a Muliava, the local government's Minister of Public Services.

"I leave you to imagine what will happen if the militias start shooting at armed people," insisted Le Franc, referring to "a deadly spiral".

A 42-year-old resident, who AFP identified only as Sébastien, said he was "protecting the city".

"The police are overwhelmed, so we try to protect ourselves and, as soon as things heat up, we notify the police (...). We are trying to get each neighborhood to have its own militia," he said.

The French National Assembly adopted the text that expands the electorate in the archipelago by 351 votes to 153, provoking the wrath of the pro-independence movement.

The reform still needs three-fifths of the votes of the deputies gathered in Congress in Versailles.

The aim is to extend the electorate for provincial elections to all those born in New Caledonia and resident for at least 10 years.

Independence supporters believe that the enlargement could "further marginalize the indigenous Kanak people", who make up 41% of the population.

The president of the territory's pro-independence government, Louis Mapou, said today that he had taken note of the reform voted in Paris, but regretted a measure that he said had "a serious impact" on the management of New Caledonia's affairs.

"We appeal for calm," he added.

The main figure in the non-independence camp, former Secretary of State Sonia Backès, called on Macron to declare a state of emergency.

"We are in a state of civil war," she lamented, quoted by AFP.

New Caledonia is an archipelago located in Melanesia, about 1,200 kilometers east of Australia and 16,000 kilometers from Paris, with just over 270,000 inhabitants.

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