Ahmed Wajah, 2016-08-16

A town in France has joined two other in banning the body-covering burkini swimsuit worn by some Muslim women.

Corsica has become the latest city after Cannes and Villeneuve-Loubet in banning the Islamic swimsuit, arguing that the garment defies French laws on secularism.

The burkini – the word is a combination of burqa and bikini, covers a female`s entire body only leaving the face, hands and feet exposed.

Socialist mayor Ange-Pierre Vivoni of Sisco, on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica, told BFM Television the burkini is not acceptable in his town.

“People here feel provoked by things like that.”

Vivoni says he is not targeting Muslims but rather he intends to rid his island of Islamist fundamentalists, whom he says, has no reason to be there.

However media reports have emerged that a scuffle on the Sisco beach on Saturday night had been sparked by a tourist taking pictures of Muslim women bathing in a burkini.

The mayor has denied the reports.

Edited by Faizel Patel