They had decided to defy the curfew, to show their opposition to this measure which entered into force two hours earlier in Martinique.
But the peaceful demonstration, to the sounds of drums and in a carnival atmosphere, turned sour.
Saturday evening in Fort-de-France, violent clashes took place between opponents of the restrictive measures and the police, and a vaccine park and a pharmacy were set on fire.
A hundred people gathered around 9 p.m. in the capital of Martinique, two hours after the entry into force of the curfew, decided this week by the prefecture of the Caribbean island.
On their way to the city center, the crowd clashed with the police, who tried to push back the demonstrators by using tear gas canisters.
Critical health situation on the island
Faced with the police intervention, pallets, tires and various objects were set on fire and braziers lit, while a vaccinodrome was completely ravaged by flames and a hypermarket was looted at the entrance to the city.
A gendarmerie helicopter came to reinforce the police to disperse the crowd, a few hours after a first demonstration, this time against the health pass, in which around 500 people had participated.
Martinique, in a state of health emergency since July 13, is experiencing a re-containment for a period of at least three weeks, while the Prime Minister, Jean Castex, this week evoked a "dramatic situation".
Read also "It's the apocalypse": in Martinique, the hospital system overwhelmed by the Covid-19
The island has one of the highest incidence rates in France, 1040 positive cases per 100,000 inhabitants, against an average of 218 for the entire territory.
Only about 15% of the island's population is vaccinated.
The saturation of hospitals also forced the transfer of three patients with Covid-19 from Fort-de-France to Paris, overnight from Saturday to Sunday.
Fifty soldiers from the Army Health Service and the Army Medical Regiment must also be quickly deployed to the CHU of Fort-de-France.
