Anti-vaccine protestors on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe on Tuesday threw urine on a neighborhood hospital's director and deputy basic director, in addition to smashed a automotive, officers stated Wednesday.

The assault occurred exterior the island's College Hospital Heart as police tried to escort the director and different employees to security. The director misplaced consciousness for a brief interval through the incident, and the group ripped the deputy basic director's garments, the hospital stated, including that urine was thrown at each of them.

An govt assistant's car was additionally extensively broken, officers stated.

"These deliberate abuses are unacceptable and insupportable," Alexandre Rochatte, Guadeloupe's prefect, stated in an announcement.

Rochatte stated the federal government will pursue authorized motion in opposition to these accountable.

On Wednesday, French authorities spokesman Gabriel Attal stated what occurred is "shameful. It is revolting. It is scandalous. And it is inadmissible within the republic."

A well being employees' union organized Tuesday's protest, together with ones prior that turned violent, in opposition to vaccine mandates and different measures. The union instructed native media that its members want to reclaim wages misplaced after suspension for not receiving a COVID vaccine, as mandated by regulation.

Guadeloupe's inhabitants of roughly 400,000 folks has one of many lowest charges of vaccination in France.

Guadeloupe, Anti-Vaccine Protest, Violent
Throughout a protest on Tuesday exterior the College Hospital Heart on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, a hospital director and different employees had been bodily attacked as police tried to escort them to security. On this picture, a demonstrator holds an indication studying "Freedom cannot be injected" throughout a protest march over coronavirus measures and social grievances in Pointe-a-Pitre on the island of Guadeloupe on November 27, 2021. Christophe Archambault/AFP through Getty Photographs

The French authorities declared a "state of well being emergency" for Guadeloupe and a number of other different abroad territories Wednesday, citing a "appreciable rise" in virus instances as a consequence of Omicron's quick unfold, calling it a "well being disaster placing the inhabitants's well being at risk." The measure permits the federal government to subject decrees that briefly curtail freedoms, together with restrictions on actions, commerce, entrepreneurship and gatherings. It additionally permits the federal government to requisition obligatory items and providers to struggle in opposition to a well being catastrophe.

Vaccinations are necessary for all French well being employees, whereas France's COVID-19 well being move is required to enter meals institutions, cultural venues and sport arenas, and for long-distance journey. The measures have met the stiffest opposition in Guadeloupe and Martinique, prompting rioting that additionally displays long-running frustrations over inequality with the French mainland.

Guadeloupe, an abroad division of France, makes use of the euro forex. One-third of the island's inhabitants lives beneath the poverty line, and the price of residing is greater than on the French mainland. Water provides have been a serious drawback lately due to out of date pipes.

Anger over France's dealing with of a poisonous pesticide in Caribbean banana fields additionally has fueled distrust within the authorities's COVID-19 vaccine insurance policies, together with misinformation shared on WhatsApp or Telegram teams.

The Related Press contributed to this report.