PARIS, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- A "Yellow Vests" protester lost his life on Thursday after being hit by a truck in a roundabout in Agen, in southwestern France where demonstrators staged more blockades of motorways to oppose President Emmanuel Macron's packages of reforms, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said.
"There has been a ninth death, this morning in Agen, by a roundabout. It was a "Yellow Vest"who was protesting outside but was not following roadway safety instructions," Castaner told reporters.
Eight others have died in incidents linked to the movement, mostly from traffic accidents caused by roadblocks, since the movement started on Nov. 17.
The "Yellow Vests" action, a nation-wide protest against weak economic performance and stagnant income increase under President Emmanuel Macron, started as a campaign against surge in fuel prices this year.
Thousands of drivers, wearing the yellow high-visibility vests required to be carried in their cars, blocked roads across the country.
"This must stop. Nine dead," the minister said.
"There are today significant efforts that have been made. There is the will to dialogue, to debate. Every French citizen, whether it is Yellow Vest or not, must today find the conditions of appeasement," he stressed.
As protesters have been considering, on facebook and across social media, a fresh round of social action this weekend despite the gouvernment's social measures, Castaner warned that "If some, a small minority, a few thousand people ... want to continue to block the economic life, they will assume a very serious responsibility."
