Evening Update Wednesday 26 April 2023

French Prime Minster Elisabeth Borne has said that 150 additional police and gendarmes will be stationed at the border with Italy in Menton. The announcement is part of the Prime Minister's new measures to combat illegal immigration. She said that the new personnel would be in place next week and also announced the creation of a new border force in the next 6 months which would be able to work closely with other French security forces such as customs and the military.

The Alpes-Maritimes Prefecture has said that further arrests have been made in the Moulins district of Nice. Seventeen security interventions were carried out in the district last week leading to thirty seven arrests, twenty of whom are minors. Police also seized cannabis as well as cocaine and several thousand euros in cash.

The A8 motorway has fully reopened after being closed because of a vehicle fire. A lorry caught fire at about 10.25am near Sainte Maximin on the carriageway in the direction of Italy. The motorway full reopened just before 5.00pm this evening.

Five people have been injured in an avalanche in the Haut-Alpes. According to local reports, the incident occurred this morning at an altitude of 3,000 metres. One of the injured is in a serious condition in the hospital in Brigancon.

There's been a fall in the number of Category A jobseekers, in other words those who have no activity. According to figures published today, the number of such jobseekers stood at just over 3 million in the first quarter of this year, which is down 1.2% on the previous quarter and 5.9% on the same period last year. However, the number