World

BROWNSVILLE, United States — At least eight people were killed and several others injured on Sunday when an SUV ran a red light and plowed into a group waiting at a bus stop outside a migrant aid centre in the US state of Texas, police said.

Law enforcement said they were treating the incident as an accident for now, although a witness told AFP the driver had yelled insults at the group before accelerating.

The gray sport utility vehicle “went through a red light and ran over several people” at around 8:30am (1330 GMT) in Brownsville, a border city at the southernmost tip of the state, police spokesman Martin Sandoval told AFP.

He said seven people died and “nearly 10” others were injured. US media later reported that one person had died from their injuries at a local hospital.

Witness Luis Herrera, whose arm was hurt in the incident, told AFP the crash was “sudden”.

“A woman went by in a car and warned us to get out of the way,” he said. 

“It was a matter of moments. The killer came [through] in the car, gesturing at us, insulting us,” the 36-year-old Venezuelan said.

Herrera then described the driver as accelerating the car with full force.

The motorist, whom Sandoval said was also taken to the hospital, was detained by witnesses until police arrived. He has been charged for now with reckless driving.

“More than likely there’s going to be other charges coming on later,” Sandoval earlier told a local ABC affiliate, without clarifying what the additional charges might be.

Police still had not publicly identified the driver by late Sunday evening, though a news conference was planned for Monday morning.

Authorities have launched an investigation into whether the fatal crash was an accident or intentional, Sandoval said.

“We’re looking [into it],” he told AFP.

‘Intense’

The victims were among a crowd of about 25 people waiting at a bus stop, according to Victor Maldonado, the executive director of the Ozanam Centre, a homeless shelter across the street from the crash.

The group, whom he said were all Venezuelan, had just eaten breakfast at the facility.

He described a grisly scene, with body parts left behind along the street.

Witnesses were “really shocked,” Maldonado told AFP. “It was pretty intense.”

The homeless centre is open 24 hours per day, Maldonado said, as “we’ve been housing individuals coming from Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, China, Ukraine - and multiple Venezuelans,” he added. 

Sandoval said at least some of the victims were migrants but could not confirm whether they all were.

“It’s something that we are investigating with border police,” he said.

Texas Congressman Vicente Gonzalez, a Democrat whose district includes Brownsville, said on Twitter he was “praying for all those involved in this horrific incident”.

The news of the tragedy comes as authorities brace for the lifting on Thursday of a Donald Trump-era federal policy that allows border patrol officers to deport or turn away migrants without even accepting their asylum applications.

The looming expiration of the rule known as Title 42 has authorities fearing a spike in undocumented migrants entering the United States.

It also comes a day after a shooter killed at least eight people at a shopping mall, also in Texas, in the latest mass shooting to rock the country.

MOSCOW — Evacuations from the front line around Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant prompted safety warnings from the UN nuclear watchdog on Saturday, as a string of recent strikes escalate predictions of a looming spring counteroffensive.

Moscow has blamed Kyiv, and its Western supporters, for an escalating number of long-range attacks and sabotage operations, including on the Kremlin.

A car bomb on Saturday wounded prominent nationalist writer Zakhar Prilepin and killed his assistant in an attack Moscow pinned on both Kyiv and Washington.

The head of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner meanwhile asked Moscow to let Chechen fighters relieve his forces at the flashpoint city of Bakmut in eastern Ukraine.

Citing stepped-up shellings by Kyiv, Moscow has ordered families with children and elderly to temporarily evacuate a slew of Russian-held areas in southern Ukraine, including the town near Europe's largest nuclear plant.

"The general situation in the area near the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant is becoming increasingly unpredictable and potentially dangerous," IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said in a statement on Saturday. "I'm extremely concerned about the very real nuclear safety and security risks facing the plant."

The removal order has led to "a mad panic and no less mad queues" at the checkpoint into Russian-annexed Crimea, said Ivan Fedorov, the mayor of Melitopol in Zaporizhzhia Oblast.

With buses ferrying people out every 20 to 30 minutes, he said stations have been drained of gasoline.

"The partial evacuation they announced is going too fast, and there is a possibility that they may be preparing for provocations and [for that reason] focusing on civilians," Fedorov wrote on Telegram.

Nationalists targeted 

Investigators said Ukraine was behind the blast that wrecked writer Prilepin's car on Saturday morning in Nizhny Novgorod, around 400 kilometres from Moscow.

They published images of a partly destroyed, overturned car and said the well-known novelist was taken to hospital.

Suspect Alexander Permyakov acted “on the instructions from the Ukrainian special services”, according to Russian investigators.

But Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhaylo Podolyak suggested the attack was due to Russian in-fighting.

Later, Russia’s foreign ministry said: “The responsibility for this terrorist act, and for others, does not lie only with Ukraine, but also with its Western minders, primarily the United States.”

Prilepin is a vocal supporter of Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine, where he fought alongside pro-Russian separatists in 2014. He has been a frequent visitor to pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine since the start of the conflict in April 2014.

There have been two previous killings of nationalists, both of which Russia blamed on Ukraine.

In April, a blast from a statuette rigged with explosives killed 40-year-old pro-Kremlin military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky.

And last August, Darya Dugina, the daughter of a prominent ultranationalist intellectual, was killed in a car bombing outside Moscow, which Russia blamed on Ukraine. Kyiv denied the charges

The chief of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner meanwhile asked Moscow to let him hand over his positions in Bakhmut to Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.

“I ask you to issue a combat order before 00:00 on May 10 concerning the transfer of the positions of the Wagner paramilitary units in Bakhmut and its periphery, to the units of the Akhmat battalion,” Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a letter to Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu.

The Akhmat battalion refers to combat units under the command of Kadyrov, who has ruled Russia’s Muslim-majority republic of Chechnya for a decade-and-a-half.

Wagner fighters have led the battle for Bakhmut, spearheading the months-long Russian assault on the city, and almost capturing it in what has been the longest and bloodiest battle of the Russian campaign in Ukraine.

But rivalries between Prigozhin and the Russian army continue to strain.

On Friday, he blamed Shoigu and Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov for “tens of thousands” of killed and wounded Russian fighters in Ukraine and criticised the defence ministry for a lack of ammunition.

Kadyrov said Friday that his forces were “ready to move” towards Bakhmut and “just waiting for orders”.

Increasing sabotage 

As Russia gears up to celebrate the May 9 anniversary of the Soviet victory over the Nazis, Moscow has blamed Kyiv for an uptick in drone incursions and train sabotage, which experts suggest are a prelude to an expected counteroffensive.

In the most spectacular incident, Russian authorities claimed on Thursday to have thwarted a drone attack on the Kremlin, fingering Washington as the mastermind.

It said the attack was an attempt to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin. Both Kyiv and Washington have denied any involvement.

The authorities in Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014, and in Russia’s southern regions of Krasnodar and Rostov, both near Ukraine, have all reported drone strikes, or attempted drone attacks — in recent days.

On the Ukrainian side, Kyiv said Russian fire Saturday had killed six Ukrainian emergency workers demining in the southern region of Kherson.

MOSCOW — Zakhar Prilepin insisted on Sunday that he would not be scared off, a day after being wounded in a car blast that killed his friend and assistant.

“I tell the demons: you will not intimidate anyone,” Prilepin said in his first message since the incident. “God exists. We will win.”

He paid tribute to Alexander Shubin who was travelling with him when Saturday’s attack happened.

“My dear friend, who worked as my guardian angel for 8 years, has died,” Prilepin wrote.

Prilepin also wrote that he had dropped his daughter off “five minutes before the explosion”.

Russia has blamed the blast that targeted the 47-year-old writer on Ukraine and the United States. Prilepin is a fervent supporter of the offensive in Ukraine.

The writer recalled losing consciousness for three minutes, before crawling out for help.

“Thanks to everyone who prayed, because it should have been impossible to survive such an explosion,” wrote Prilepin, who has both legs broken.

A picture released by the Russian Investigative Committee showed a wrecked, overturned white car.

Prilepin said there had been two mines, only one of which was detonated.

Officials initially said the person driving the car had been killed in the blast, but Prilepin said he was behind the wheel.

He thanked regional governor Gleb Nikitin for sending a helicopter to his rescue, as well as his family and the various Russian officials who condemned the attack.

SEOUL — Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Sunday his “heart aches” for Koreans who suffered under colonialism, as Seoul and Tokyo seek a rapid reset of long-strained ties in the face of North Korean threats.

Kishida was in Seoul on the first official bilateral visit by a Japanese leader to South Korea in over a decade. He met President Yoon Suk-yeol, who has made improving testy relations with Japan a top priority for his administration.

The East Asian neighbours, both crucial security allies of the United States, have long been at odds over historic issues linked to Japan’s brutal 1910 to 1945 colonial occupation of the Korean Peninsula, including sexual slavery and forced labour.

“My heart aches as many people went through a very difficult and sad experience in the harsh environment at that time,” Kishida said, speaking after the summit with Yoon.

Yoon said Kishida’s visit showed “shuttle diplomacy” — regular mutual visits and high-level talks — was back on track, after a lengthy pause during a bitter trade spat linked to the forced labour issue.

“Based on the friendship and trust I have with Prime Minister Kishida, I will promote deeper bilateral cooperation towards a new future,” said Yoon, who was in Tokyo in March for a fence-mending visit.

Bilateral ties were torpedoed in 2018, when South Korea’s supreme court ordered Japanese firms to compensate the wartime victims of forced labour, enraging Tokyo and triggering an escalating series of tit-for-tat economic measures.

But Yoon, who took office last year, has sought to bury the historical hatchet, earlier announcing a plan to compensate victims without direct involvement from Tokyo — a move that was unpopular domestically, but helped improve ties with Japan.

“As the South Korean government moves forward... I am touched to see how so many people are opening their hearts to the future while not forgetting the hardships of the past,” Kishida said Sunday.

‘Expression of sincerity’ 

Experts had widely predicted Tokyo would not offer a new apology, and Kishida stopped short of this, instead reaffirming the “heartfelt apology” made by previous administrations in Tokyo.

“There are parts of Kishida’s statement that definitely fall short of our expectations,” Choi Eunmi, a researcher at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, told YTN.

“But even though he said it was his personal feeling, I would like to note his expression of sincerity. And I think this is meaningful as we are just taking our first step in restoring shuttle diplomacy.”

During their March summit, Kishida and Yoon agreed to end tit-for-tat trade curbs, with Kishida inviting the South Korean leader to a G-7 meeting in Hiroshima this month.

For Yoon, it is long overdue that the two countries “end the vicious cycle of mutual hostility and work together” to improve regional security, he told AFP in March before he flew to Tokyo.

‘Grave threat’ 

Efforts to mend ties come as North Korean leader Kim Jong -un, who last year declared his country an “irreversible” nuclear power, doubles down on weapons development and testing.

Pyongyang has conducted a record-breaking string of launches in 2023, including test-firing the country’s first solid-fuel ballistic missile — a technical breakthrough.

The United States and South Korea have in turn been ramping up their defence cooperation, staging a series of major military exercises including two trilateral drills involving Japan this year.

“Prime Minister Kishida and I shared the recognition that North Korea’s nuclear and missile development poses a grave threat to peace and stability not only on the Korean Peninsula and Japan, but also throughout the world,” Yoon said on Sunday.

The two leaders agreed to hold a trilateral meeting with the United States on the sidelines of the upcoming G-7 summit.

Yoon recently returned from a state visit to Washington, where he and US president Joe Biden agreed to boost the United States’ nuclear defence of South Korea and improve cooperation with Japan.

“Further North Korean provocations and weapons developments are expected soon, so it is important for US allies to stay a step ahead of Pyongyang,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.

“They can do so by better coordinating sanctions enforcement, intelligence sharing, missile defense exercises, and anti-submarine drills. Progress on such trilateral cooperation is likely to be highlighted by a Biden-Yoon-Kishida meeting on the sidelines of the G-7 summit in Hiroshima later this month.”

LONDON — Charles III on Saturday finally met his date with destiny after a lifetime as heir to his late mother Queen Elizabeth II, as he was officially crowned king in the first coronation in Britain since 1953.

At exactly 12:02 pm (1102 GMT), the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby placed the solid gold St Edward's Crown on Charles's head as a sacred and ancient symbol of the monarch's authority.

Cries of "God Save the King" rang out from the 2,300-member congregation at Westminster Abbey and trumpet fanfares sounded at the climax of the solemn religious confirmation of his accession.

Outside, ceremonial gun salutes blasted out across land and sea while bells pealed in celebration at churches.

Charles, 74, will wear the St Edward's Crown only once during his reign. His wife, Camilla, 75, was crowned queen in a simpler ceremony soon afterwards.

The build-up to the Christian ceremony of prayer and praise — steeped in 1,000 years of British history and tradition, with sumptuous robes and priceless regalia, has been mostly celebratory.

But even before Charles and Camilla left Buckingham Palace for a rainy procession to the abbey, police arrested dozens of protesters using new powers rushed onto the statute book to crack down on direct action groups.

The anti-monarchy movement Republic, which wants an elected head of state — said six of its organisers were detained, while climate activists Just Stop Oil said 19 of its number were held.

Nevertheless, dozens of Republic activists held aloft banners on the route of the procession route, declaring: "Not My King."

Both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International voiced concern at the arrests. "This is something you would expect to see in Moscow, not London," HRW said.

London's Metropolitan Police has some 11,500 officers on the streets in one of its biggest ever security operations. It has warned that it has an "extremely low threshold" for protests.

As well as being the first coronation in 70 years, it was the first of a king since 1937. It was only the second to be televised and the first in colour and streamed online.

Changes 

Much of the two-hour Anglican service, in which Charles pledged "I come not to be served but to serve", would have been recognisable to the 39 other monarchs crowned at Westminster Abbey since 1066.

But while many of the intricate rituals and ceremony to recognise Charles as his people's "undoubted king" remained, the king sought to bring other aspects of the service up to date.

Female bishops and choristers participated for the first time, as did leaders of Britain’s non-Christian faiths, while its Celtic languages, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and Irish Gaelic, featured prominently.

A gospel choir sang for the first time at a coronation while a Greek choir intoned a psalm in tribute to Charles’s late father, Prince Philip, who was born on the island of Corfu.

As king, Charles is supreme governor of the Church of England and has described himself as a “committed Anglican Christian”.

But he heads a more religiously and ethnically diverse country than the one his mother inherited in the shadow of World War II.

As such, he sought to make the congregation more reflective of British society, inviting ordinary members of the public to sit alongside heads of state and global royalty.

In another change, the coronation themes mirrored his lifelong interest in biodiversity and sustainability.

Seasonal flowers and foliage were brought from the wind-battered Isle of Skye in northwest Scotland to Cornwall at the tip of England’s southwest coast to fill the abbey.

Ceremonial vestments from previous coronations were reused, and the anointing oil, created from olives on groves on the Mount of Olives and perfumed with essential oils, was vegan.

Charles was anointed out of sight of the congregation behind a three-sided screen in front of the High Altar, to the strains of Handel’s soaring anthem “Zadok the Priest”, sung at every coronation since 1727.

Opposition 

Rishi Sunak, Britain’s first prime minister of colour, who gave a reading from the Bible at the service, has described the coronation as “a proud expression of our history, culture and traditions”.

But not everyone is convinced: Polling indicates waning support for the monarchy, particularly among younger people.

Charles’s eldest brother Prince Andrew, sidelined due to his friendship with the late convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, was booed as he headed to the abbey.

Another royal exile, Prince Harry, who has criticised the family since leaving for the United States in 2020, attended the coronation on his own.

Overseas, Charles’s position as the hereditary monarch and head of state of 14 Commonwealth countries looks increasingly fragile.

Jamaica and Belize both signalled this week that they are moving toward becoming republics, while Australia, Canada and others may eventually follow suit.

Britons struggling with the soaring cost of living have meanwhile questioned why taxpayers should stump up for the coronation, with the bill estimated to be over £100 million ($126 million).

Support 

Yet the huge crowds of royal fans that have been building all week on The Mall outside Buckingham Palace indicate that the royals still have a central role in British culture and history.

Many of those camping out to watch have flown in from abroad, underlining the royal family’s untouched position as Britain’s leading global brand.

Christine Wilen travelled from Niagara Falls in Canada for the event.

“I’m very excited to be here, to be part of this history,” said Wilen, wearing a visor and sweatshirt in Canadian colours.

“It’s just too good an opportunity to miss,” said Nick Demont, 60, outside the abbey. “There’s a good chance I won’t see another one.”

MOSCOW/ KYIV — The chief of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner on Saturday asked Moscow to let him hand over his positions in the hotspot city of Bakhmut to Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.

"I ask you to issue a combat order before 00:00 on May 10 concerning the transfer of the positions of the Wagner paramilitary units in Bakhmut and its periphery, to the units of the Akhmat battalion" Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a letter to Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu.

The Akhmat battalion refers to the Chechen combat units under the command of strongman Kadyrov, who has ruled Russia's Muslim-majority republic Chechnya for the last decade and a half.

Prigozhin said his fighters would be forced to pull out because of a long “ammunition famine”.

He accused the Russian defence ministry of only delivering 32 per cent of the required ammunition since October 2022.

Wagner fighters are leading the battle for Bakhmut, during which rivalries between Prigozhin and the conventional army have come to the surface.

On Friday, the Wagner leader threatened to pull out in a series of scathing videos attacking Shoigu and Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov.

Kadyrov on Friday said on Telegram that his fighters were “ready to advance and occupy the city”.

He praised Wagner units, saying both groups had fought side by side in the “most difficult” battles of Popasna, Severodonetsk and Lysychansk.

In a message earlier on Saturday, Prigozhin thanked Kadyrov for his offer and said Chechen forces would “no doubt” seize Bakhmut.

Meanwhile, Ukraine said Saturday that it had for the first time downed a Russian hypersonic Kinzhal missile during a wave of Russian attacks in the night between last Wednesday and Thursday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who unveiled the Kinzhal missile in 2018, has termed it “an ideal weapon” that is extremely difficult for missile defences to intercept.

The Ukraine Air Force said the missile was shot down with a Patriot air-defence system in skies over Kyiv at around 2:30am on Thursday (2330 GMT Wednesday).

Ukraine appealed to its Western allies to help reinforce its air defence system as Russia pounded Ukraine energy infrastructure from the air over winter.

Mid-April, Ukraine received the first Patriots, seen as one of the most advanced US air defence systems.

GUWAHATI, India — The death toll after ethnic clashes in India’s remote northeast rose to 54 on Saturday, with fresh violence overnight despite authorities rushing in troops to restore order.

Thousands of soldiers were sent to Manipur state after a protest march by a tribal group turned violent on Wednesday.

Authorities imposed an Internet blackout and issued shoot-at-sight orders in “extreme cases” in an effort to contain the unrest.

Police told AFP that the situation remained tense after a fresh bout of violence on Friday night, while The Press Trust of India said hospital morgues in state capital Imphal and Churachandpur district further south had reported a combined total of 54 dead.

“16 bodies were kept in the morgue of the Churachandpur district hospital while 15 bodies were in Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences in Imphal East district,” PTI reported, citing an unnamed local official.

“The Regional Institute of Medical Sciences at Lamphel in Imphal West district reported 23 dead.”

Manipur director general of police P. Doungel told reporters on Friday that security forces were bringing the situation under control.

Army patrols had “gone a long way to quell the thing off”, he said.

Security forces and the Manipur government have yet to issue an official death toll for this week’s violence.

But India’s law minister Kiren Rijiju told reporters on Saturday that “many lives have been lost” after days of clashes alongside damage to property.

The Internet blackout has impeded the flow of information from Manipur and details of the latest clashes on Friday remain sparse.

An Indian army unit based in neighbouring Nagaland state said 13,000 people had sought shelter from the violence “within military premises”.

On Thursday, security forces fired tear gas in Imphal to disperse protesters, some of whom had set alight vehicles and houses in parts of the city.

Burnt out vehicles were seen on streets otherwise empty due to the imposition of a round-the-clock curfew.

Defence officials said on Friday that additional troops had been brought into the state by road and air.

 History of conflict 

Tribal groups were protesting against demands by the state’s majority Meitei community to be recognised under the government’s “Scheduled Tribe” category.

Indian law gives tribes falling under that designation reserved quotas for government jobs and college admissions as a form of affirmative action to address structural inequality and discrimination.

Manipur is part of India’s remote northeast, a region linked to the rest of the country by a narrow land corridor that has seen decades of unrest among ethnic and separatist groups.

The northeast is home to dozens of tribal groups and small guerrilla armies whose demands range from greater autonomy to secession from India.

At least 50,000 people have lost their lives in the conflicts since the first insurgency broke out in Manipur in the early 1950s.

Over the years these conflicts have waned, with many groups striking deals with New Delhi for more powers.

BELGRADE — Dragan Vlahovic was known for remembering the students’ names at Vladislav Ribnikar elementary school in Belgrade and reminding them to wear their coats when it was cold.

On Wednesday, the long-time security guard saved an untold number of students as he attempted to shield students from a teenage gunman, losing his life in the process.

Nine people were killed in total during the melee: Vlahovic and eight students.

At a makeshift shrine on the pavement outside the school, the words below a small hand-sketched portrait of Vlahovic read simply: “Our Hero”.

Vlahovic, who is believed to have been in his early 50s, was a fixture at the school, where he was known for his jovial spirit and ease with the students.

“The children felt like he was one of their own,” Suzana Stojicic, the mother of an eight-year-old girl who attends the school, told AFP. “He knew them all by name.

“Every morning he greeted them with a smile, asked them about their grades, and reminded them to put on their jackets.”

Just moments after the shooting, Milan Nedeljkovic — the president of Belgrade’s Vracar district where the school is located — said Vlahovic was among the first victims in the melee, after putting himself directly in the line of fire.

“Probably the tragedy would be even bigger if the man did not stand in front of the boy who was shooting,” Nedeljkovic told reporters.

‘An angel’ 

As news of his death spread, parents and students took to social media, praising Vlahovic for his service and sacrifice.

“He was an angel and a symbol of our school... Uncle Dragan, we will remember you forever and thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all the lovely memories,” one parent posted on social media.

Serbian actress Milena Vasic also posted a photograph of Vlahovic on her Instagram, thanking him for “having guarded us for all these years”.

During an address to the nation hours after the shooting, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic took a moment to pay his respects to Vlahovic, noting that he had been friendly with the 13-year-old suspected shooter.

“This security guard was the spirit of the school, looked after the children and took care of them,” Vucic said during a live broadcast.

“Everyone knew him.”

As Serbians across the country took stock of the tragedy, Vlahovic’s loss served as a grim reminder for many of the utter devastation wreaked by the deadliest school shooting in Serbia’s recent history.

“He always stood with the children, and lost his life defending the children,” said Andrijana, the mother of two boys who attend Vladislav Ribnikar. She declined to provide her surname for privacy reasons.

“Unfortunately for us all, this tragedy is a reflection of the society we live in. Sad.”

ROME — Italy's foreign minister cancelled a trip to Paris on Thursday after a French minister criticised Rome's migration policy, in a fresh spat over the contentious issue between the two nations.

In a radio interview in Paris on Thursday, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni "is incapable of resolving the migration problems" faced by her country.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani slammed Darmanin's "unacceptable" remarks and cancelled a planned trip to Paris.

"This is not the spirit in which common European challenges should be faced," he said.

Paris later sought to ease the tensions, saying it hoped that Tajani's meeting with French counterpart Catherine Colonna scheduled for Thursday evening could be rescheduled "soon".

"I have spoken with my colleague Antonio Tajani on the telephone," Colonna wrote in Italian on Twitter.

"I told him the relationship between Italy and France is based on reciprocal respect," she wrote.

The French foreign ministry said that the government "wishes to work with Italy to meet the common challenge of rapidly rising migrant flows" and urged "calm dialogue".

But in a television interview Tajani said Darmanin’s remarks were “a stab in the back” and he was still waiting for him to “apologise to the prime minister, the government, and Italy”.

The centrist French government under President Emmanuel Macron has clashed repeatedly with Italian Cabinets in recent years over migration.

The most recent spike in tensions came last November when Meloni, whose far-right Brothers of Italy Party won September elections, refused to allow a charity ship carrying 230 migrants to dock in Italy.

The Ocean Viking ship was eventually allowed to dock in France, but Paris denounced Rome’s “unacceptable” behaviour and suspended plans to receive 3,500 migrants from Italy.

At the time, Meloni denounced France’s reaction as “aggressive” and “unjustified”.

Relations have since improved, with Macron and Meloni meeting in Brussels in March for talks.

But migration remains a live issue for Meloni’s government, the most right-wing in Rome since World War II, which took office in October vowing to stop boat landings.

Since the beginning of the year, there has been a surge in the numbers of migrants arriving on Italy’s shores, mostly from North Africa.

More than 42,000 people have arrived since January 1, according to the Italian interior ministry — almost four times the number in the same period in 2022.

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne announced last month the mobilisation of 150 extra police officers to deal with “increased migration pressure on the Italian border”.

 ‘Serious crisis’

Darmanin had said earlier that Italy faced a “very serious migration crisis” and he drew parallels between Meloni and French far-right leader Marine Le Pen.

“Madame Meloni, [leader of] a far-right government chosen by friends of Mme Marine Le Pen, is incapable of resolving the migration problems on the back of which she was elected,” he told RMC radio.

Asked about the arrival of migrants at France’s southeastern border with Italy, Darmanin said there was “an influx of migrating people and particularly children”.

Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, head of the anti-immigration League party, said he was “proud to be a friend of Marine Le Pen and to be in government with Giorgia Meloni”.

“I do not accept lessons on immigration from those who send men, women and children back to Italy [across the border], continuing instead to host murderers and terrorists who should return to Italy.”

Italian politicians have long criticised France’s policy of providing a safe haven for people considered to be terrorists from an era in the 1970s known as the “Years of Lead” — a reference to the number of bullets fired at the time.