• Energy minister calls it an assassination attempt.
• Signs of bullet damage on Noboa’s car, she says.
• Indigenous federation denounces police violence.

Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa’s car was surrounded by a group of around 500 people throwing rocks as he approached an event in Canar province, a top minister said, adding that “signs of bullet damage” were found on the president’s vehicle.

Environment and Energy Minister Ines Manzano spoke on Tuesday after formally filing a report of an assassination attempt against Noboa. The president was not hurt, and five people have been detained, the minister said.

Noboa’s office said all those arrested would be processed under charges of terrorism and attempted assassination. Reuters could not independently verify whether a bullet was fired at the president’s car during protests over the removal of fuel subsidies.

Speaking afterwards at a student event in Cuenca, some 77 km (48 miles) south of where the attack took place, Noboa said his government would not tolerate such actions.

“Do not follow the bad example of those who wanted to stop us from attending this event with you and who tried to attack us,” he said. “Such attacks will not be accepted in the new Ecuador, and the law applies to everyone.”

“Shooting at the president’s car, throwing stones, damaging state property – that’s just criminal,” said Manzano, after reporting the attack to prosecutors. “We will not allow this.”

The national Indigenous federation CONAIE, however, said orchestrated violence had broken out against people who mobilised for Noboa’s arrival, saying elderly women were among those attacked in a “brutal police and military action.”

“At least five of us have been arbitrarily detained,” it said in a post on X, which included a video of a woman in traditional dress being marched off by four police officers in body armour, their faces covered by black bandanas.

Protests against decree

CONAIE launched strike action 16 days ago, organising marches and blockading some roads, in a protest against the government ending diesel subsidies. Critics say further dialogue is needed and that the measure will increase the cost of living, particularly for small-scale farmers and Indigenous communities.

Noboa signed the executive decree eliminating subsidies in mid-September, and his government declared emergency measures in several provinces to maintain order.

The government has defended ending the subsidy, which it said will free up some $1.1 billion a year that it has already begun to redistribute in compensation payments to small-scale farmers and people working in the transport sector.

Noboa, who was reelected in April, has frequently granted emergency powers to armed forces and police as part of his tough-on-crime approach to security.

Defence Minister Gian Carlo Loffredo shared a photo of 37-year-old Noboa standing outside the damaged car in sunglasses.

“Nothing stops this president, which is the best sign that the country won’t be stopped either,” he said.

A video from inside a car published by the presidency showed people throwing rocks at the side of the road and cracks on the car’s window. A separate image published by the presidency showed a car with smashed windows and a badly cracked windscreen.

A march against Noboa’s government is scheduled in the capital Quito later on Tuesday from 6pm. (2300 GMT).

At least 15 people were killed on Tuesday when a landslide triggered by torrential rains hit a passenger bus in northern India’s Himachal Pradesh state, said authorities.

The rescue workers and local villagers at the accident site were digging for survivors from under heavy boulders and mounds of earth.

The incident happened at night in Bilaspur, about 60 miles (100kilometres) from Shimla, the capital of the picturesque Himalayan state.

“15 deaths have been confirmed so far,” the local government said in a statement.

State Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu “expressed deep sorrow and anguish over the tragic bus mishap,” the statement added.

“Three children have been rescued alive and were being treated” at a local hospital, and the rescue operations were ongoing.

It is the latest such incident in the world’s most populous country, where flash floods and landslides have already claimed dozens of casualties this monsoon season.

Monsoon rains, usually from June to September, bring respite after peak summer months and are also essential for the region’s agrarian economy.

But they also bring widespread death and destruction, particularly in ecologically fragile Himalayan states, where experts warn that the number of extreme events has increased in recent years.

Torrential rains last week also triggered deadly landslides and floods in northeastern India’s Darjeeling, destroying swathes of premier tea estates in the Himalayan region.

The deluge, which killed at least 36 people in the region, wiped out around five percent of Darjeeling’s renowned tea gardens, delivering a heavy blow in a district that has become synonymous with the leaf itself.

The disaster also washed away many roads and destroyed more than 500 houses.

Hundreds of locals and tourists also moved to safe shelters, waiting for rescue or waters to recede from key arterial roads.

France’s President Emmanuel Macron faced growing pressure on Tuesday to resign or hold a snap parliamentary election to end political chaos that has forced the resignation of five prime ministers in less than two years.

The 47-year-old centrist president has repeatedly said he will see out his second term, which ends in 2027.

But resignation calls, long confined to the fringes, have entered the mainstream during one of the worst political crises since the 1958 creation of the Fifth Republic, France’s current system of government.

On Tuesday, as Macron’s outgoing Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu held last-ditch talks to form a new government, his first premier in 2017, Edouard Philippe, said it was time for a new president to break the deadlock.

Speaking to RTL radio, Philippe said Macron should be “leaving in an orderly manner” to allow a way out of the crisis.

‘It’s a mess’

Political turmoil in the euro zone’s second largest economy was front page news across Europe at a time when US President Donald Trump is demanding the continent do more to shore up its own defenses and aid Ukraine.

Markets have taken fright, with investors keeping a close eye on France’s ability to cut a yawning budget deficit. French stocks fell 1.4% on Monday and the risk premium on French government bond yields rose to a nine-month high on the crisis.

“It’s a mess. It makes you sad,” said Brigitte Gries, a 70-year-old pensioner in Paris, summing up public consternation.

“We’re becoming a bit of a laughing stock around the world right now,” added taxi driver Soufiane Mansour in the southern city of Montpellier. “We’re a bit of a clown around the world and in Europe, unfortunately.”

‘Allies round on Macron’

Philippe, whom polls show to be the best-placed candidate to lead the political centre in a succession battle, was the second of Macron’s former prime ministers to distance themselves from him in as many days.

Gabriel Attal, another erstwhile Macron loyalist, was blunt in his criticism. He was prime minister for a few months last year before Macron called a snap vote that delivered a hung parliament with three ideologically opposed blocs.

“Like many French people, I no longer understand the president’s decisions,” he said on TF1 TV, after Macron asked Lecornu, who had just tendered his resignation, to go back to opponents for last-gasp talks.

Lecornu, whose 14-hour-old administration was the shortest in modern French history, was given two days to find consensus.

Attal, however, ruled out calling for Macron to resign, someone who took part in a meeting of his parliamentary group said.

‘Far-right snubs talks’

Meanwhile, Lecornu held talks with leaders of Macron’s centrist alliance and conservatives, in which they agreed that finding a deal on next year’s budget was a priority.

He will need others, including the Socialists, on board to have the numbers needed to form a majority in the National Assembly— not least to pass a budget for next year.

Lecornu now plans to talk with the opposition in the afternoon and on Wednesday morning, but the far-right National Rally said they saw no point in those talks and would skip them.

Party chiefs Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen instead “reiterate their call for the dissolution of the National Assembly,” the RN said.

The RN tops opinion polls, but those surveys show a repeat election would likely produce another divided parliament, with no group holding a majority.