Tunisian authorities arrested three migrants as suspects in the killing of a local man in Tunisia’s Sfax, local media reported on Tuesday.
The country’s second-largest city is a hotbed of illegal human smuggling with many migrants using at a departure point for Italy.
Tensions between the locals and the migrants in the city have been rising for months.
A spokesman for the Sfax prosecutor told media that the victim was fatally stabbed late Monday during a brawl between Sfax locals and migrants.
Three suspects from Cameroon have been arrested, the spokesman added.
Tensions in the city have been rising for months with locals holding demonstrations and calling for migrants to leave.
News of the latest incident spread like wildfire after a member of parliament for Sfax posted a video on social media showing a man lying in a blood-soaked street.
There was an increased police presence in the coastal city of Sfax after the killing, local media reported.
Reports of clashes between locals and migrants were being reported in several districts in Sfax on Tuesday.
Racist attacks on foreign students and migrants have risen since the country’s president accused migrants of bringing violence and crime to Tunisia.
A statement from the Tunisian presidency said that Tunisia “does not accept that anyone who does not respect its laws stays on its territory, or uses it as a transit country or to resettle nationals of certain African countries.”
Many migrants use Tunisia as a way to reach Europe by sea with Tunisians themselves joining them in an attempt to escape the economic crisis in the country.