The Sétif massacre refers to widespread disturbances and killings in and around the Algerian market town of Sétif located to the west of Constantine in 1945. The French authorities shot local demonstrators at a protest on 8 May 1945. Then, riots in the town itself were followed by attacks on French colons (settlers) in the surrounding countryside resulting in 103 deaths. Subsequent reprisals by French authorities and vigilantes are estimated to have caused much greater numbers of deaths amongst the Muslim population of the region. Both the outbreak and the indiscriminate nature of its repression are believed to have marked a turning point in Franco-Algerian relations.[2]