Paris, May 8 (IANS): French Prime Minister Jean Castex has announced that 10 million euros ($12 million) would be spent to reinforce the security of police officers in response to the recent violence directed against them.

"I have decided to immediately release a package of 10 million euros to strengthen the security of police," Xinhua news agency quoted Castex as saying on Friday.

"We are more than ever determined to continue the fight (against insecurity). We will more than ever continue the deployment of additional police and gendarmes on the ground and bolster the modernization of their equipment and materials," the Prime Minister added.

The government will make body cameras a general equipment for the national police by summer and strengthen penal responses to violence against police officers and gendarmes, he added.

The new security measures came after a policeman was shot dead in the southern city of Avignon on Wednesday during an operation to investigate a suspected drug deal.

The shooter is still at large.

The 36-year-old policeman is the second officer killed on duty this year after a female police employee was stabbed to death on April 23 in a terror act at a police station in the Paris suburb of Rambouillet.

"In 2020, seven of our police officers lost their lives on mission to ensure our safety," Castex said.