A MURDER investigation has been launched after a police officer in Nice shot a driver who had failed to obey an order to stop, the southern French city’s public prosecutor said today.

A video circulating on social media appears to show an officer pointing his gun at the driver’s window as the vehicle is reversing in front of a damaged police vehicle. The officer fires just after the driver appears to stop the car.

Wednesday’s shooting is the latest in a string of incidents across France in recent months that have raised questions about the police use of deadly force.

Nice public prosecutor Xavier Bonhomme said in a statement that the officer claimed to have been reacting to an “immediate threat” to him and a colleague.

Police and judicial authorities allege that the driver failed to stop after officers noticed that he was driving dangerously, instead turning back and ramming the police car.

Mr Bonhomme said that the man was driving a stolen car and had previously been convicted of driving without a licence, theft and other offences.

Also on Wednesday, a woman was killed in the western city of Rennes when police opened fire on a car in which she was a passenger during an anti-drug operation. The driver was wounded.