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Australians stranded in New Caledonia are rationing food as they wait to leave amid riots that have now killed six people.
Sydney traveller Joanne Elias and her family have been holed up in a Noumea resort since the violence broke out earlier this week.
"The kids are definitely hungry because we don't really have much option of what we can feed them," she told Reuters.
"You can tell they are running out of food," she said, referring to the resort where they are staying.
After four nights of upheaval, hundreds of French police reinforcements began arriving in the French-ruled territory on Friday in an effort to regain control of the capital.
The riots, sparked by anger among Indigenous Kanak people over contested electoral reform, have resulted in burnt businesses, torched cars, looted shops and road barricades, cutting off access to medicine and food, authorities say.
Ms Elias, who arrived in the country on May 10 with her husband and four children, said she had been told to fill a bathtub in case water ran out as food stocks dwindled.
"We don't know how long we're going to be here for," she said, adding that her family was among about 30 Australians stuck at the resort.
On Saturday, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in a post on social media platform X that the government was "working with authorities in France and New Caledonia, and like-minded partners including New Zealand, to assess options for Australians to safely depart".
She added that Noumea's La Tontouta International Airport remained closed and urged Australians "to exercise a high degree of caution in New Caledonia".
An estimated 3,200 tourists and other travellers have been stranded inside or outside the archipelago by the closure of the airport.
Airline Aircalin plans to resume flights on Tuesday when Tontouta airport is expected to reopen — Air Caledonie has no flights planned for the time being.
The New Caledonia government said on Friday the island had stocks of food for two months and the problem was distribution.
Specialists who can clear mines will start removing booby-trapped road barricades that have cut off supplies of food and medicine to the public, French officials have said.
One person was killed and another two people were injured on Saturday.
General Nicolas Mattheos said the fatal incident occurred in the archipelago's northern Kaala-Gomen area.
A source told news agency AFP that the dead man and one of the injured were a father and son trying to cross a barricade erected by rioters.
Another source told the Associated Press the trio were caught up in an exchange of gunfire.
Noumea mayor Sonia Lagarde told news channel BFMTV that New Caledonia was "far from getting back to calm".
"You could describe the last two nights as calmer, but the days are all alike, each with their share of fires," she said.
Ms Lagarde said on Saturday that Noumea resembled "a city under siege", and she expected it would "take a bit of time" for security reinforcements to make their presence felt.
"The damage is incredible … it is a spectacle of desolation," she said.
AFP reporters in the city's Magenta district saw vehicles and buildings burned, with a phalanx of riot police on the scene trying to reassert government control.
Overnight, residents reported hearing gunfire, the drone of helicopters and "massive explosions" — what seemed to be gas canisters blowing up inside a building that was set alight.
Reuters/AFP/ABC