Protesters picked up arms in the ongoing cost-of-living protests in the French colonial holding of Martinique on Wednesday, the local government said.

According to the Prefecture of Martinique, protesters set up seven barricades during the protest and targeted firefighters and police officers on three occasions with automatic rifle fire as the authorities attempted to dismantle the barricades. The protesters also launched Molotov cocktails and other projectiles at the government forces. The government did not comment on whether there had been either police or protester casualties.

This is a continuation of the protests that began in September after two powerful local unions, one representing transportation and another representing health workers, local authorities, and the private sector, began protests over the high cost of living. The transportation union began to block roads and suspend public transportation, while health workers, local authorities, and private sector employees announced an indefinite strike. The unions demanded an increase in the minimum wage, retirement pensions and price controls on basic goods, among other things.

The French Métropole responded by sending a group of special anti-riot police, the Companies for Republican Security, which had been banned from operating in Martinique after killing protesters in the territory in 1959. The French government, represented by the Prefecture of Martinique, also imposed an evening curfew in September. Last week, Martinique’s government said that it had reached an agreement with local authorities and supermarket distributors to lower the cost of some food items by an average of 20 percent. The local Assembly for the Protection of Afro-Caribbean Peoples and Resources (RPPRAC) has rejected the agreement, saying that it does not go far enough.