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Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The woman had initially called Strasbourg's ambulance service

A recording of an emergency service operator mocking a young mother, who died hours after her call was ignored, has sparked outrage in France.

Naomi Musenga, 22, called Strasbourg's ambulance service with severe stomach pain and said: "I'm going to die".

"You'll definitely die one day, like everyone else," the worker replied.

The woman eventually called another service and was taken to a hospital but died after a heart attack. The health minister has ordered an investigation.

In the three-minute audio, Musenga - in a very weak voice - appeals for help and struggles to describe her pain while speaking with the ambulance service (Samu).

The operator, apparently in an annoyed voice, replies: "If you don't tell me what's going on, I'll hang up!"

"I'm in a lot of pain," the woman replies.

The worker then tells her to call a doctor, and gives her the number for a different service, SOS Médecins, which sends out doctors instead of an ambulance.

"Help me, I'm very ill," the woman repeats. "I can't help you, I don't know what you've got," answers the operator, giving the other number again, adding: "I can't do it for you."

The recording also has an exchange between the operator and another staff member making fun of Musenga.

The woman eventually managed to call SOS Médecins and, after a five-hour wait, was taken to a hospital by the ambulance service.

After suffering a stroke, she was transferred to the intensive care unit but died hours later of "multiple organ failure due to a hemorrhagic shock", according to Le Monde newspaper (in French).

The case dates back to December but only came to light when a recording of the call, obtained by the victim's family, was published by a local website.

Days after the transcript of the phone-call became known, Strasbourg University Hospitals has said it is provisionally suspending the operator who took the call.

The hospital said initial inquiries had led it to believe that the "treatment of the call had not conformed to good practice". The local prosecutor has opened an investigation.

#JusticePourNaomi

Reacting on Tuesday, Health Minister Agnès Buzyn said on Twitter she was "deeply outraged" by the case and requested an investigation from the government agency in charge of health and social affairs, Igas.

"I would like to assure her family of my full support... I promise her family will get all the information".

Skip Twitter post by @agnesbuzyn Je suis profondément indignée par les circonstances du décès de Naomi Musenga en décembre. Je tiens à assurer sa famille de mon entier soutien et demande une enquête de I'IGAS sur ces graves dysfonctionnements. Je m'engage à ce que sa famille obtienne toutes les informations . — Agnès Buzyn (@agnesbuzyn) May 8, 2018 Report

Naomi Musenga's elder sister, Louange, said the way she had been treated was shocking. "She was alone, she said she was going to die, her sheets were filthy, no-one should die in these conditions."

Describing Musenga as "bright, strong, courageous", she added: "Naomi, as a human being... simply had the right to be rescued, to be cared for. This must not happen again."

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On Facebook, a page Justice pour Naomi Musenga (Justice for Naomi Musenga) has called for the "truth and justice", while a hashtag #JusticePourNaomi has been used hundreds of times on Twitter, with some accusing the Samu of "negligence" and "racism".

The case has also highlighted what the head of France's association of emergency doctors sees as a crisis in the country's ambulance service.

While condemning what happened in Strasbourg as shocking, Patrick Pelloux told Le Parisien newspaper the number of ambulance emergencies had mushroomed from eight million in 1988 to 21 million today, while the number of calls had trebled.

There were carers who were "exhausted, stressed and burnt out, who become detached from the patient's suffering," he said.

A former Samu worker pointed out that out of 100 calls, only 10 to 20 were real emergencies, with the majority being people who are drunk, anxious or want someone to talk to. "We're constantly afraid of being wrong."


Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

A campaign calling for the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to step down has flooded social media.

The campaign comes after Mr Erdogan, who has ruled Turkey for 15 years, said in a speech to Parliament on Tuesday that "if one day our nation says 'enough', then we will step aside".

Seizing up on this statement, many Turks have taken to the hashtag #TAMAM, which translates as 'enough', to say they have indeed had enough.

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The hashtag has been used almost two million times since Tuesday evening, with many social media users strongly criticising the president and the ruling AK Party.

As the trend gathered momentum, pro-government accounts mobilised to launch a counter hashtag, #DEVAM - which translates as "carry on".

The showdown between the rival campaigns has been called "one of the largest political hashtag wars in internet history" by Professor Akin Unver, who is a Fellow of Cyber Research Program at the Centre for Economic and Foreign Policy Research.

One Instagram user depicted the battle between #TAMAM and #DEVAM as a fight between superheroes.

Mr Erdogan's comments come amid heightened political tensions after the president called a snap election to be held on 24 June.

Muharrem Ince, who is the presidential candidate of the opposition Republican Peoples' Party used the phrase to suggest "time's up" for Mr Erdogan.

Syrian cartoonist Iad Wawil used the hashtag to share an illustration suggesting Mr Erdogan may be haunted by his "TAMAM" comments.

Image copyright @iadtawil

Many thousands simply tweeted #TAMAM, while others got creative with the ways they shared the anti-Erdogan slogan.

Some spelt it out with green peppers and some used their limbs to form the word.

Despite the rapid growth of the hashtag and the fiercely critical nature of many posts, Mr Erdogan remains popular in Turkey having brought sustained economic growth to the country.

The rival hashtag #DEVAM was launched later on Tuesday by pro-government users and has been used over 300,000 times.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu used the hashtag to claim the government "will carry on with our blessed cause for a more prosperous and powerful Turkey,"

Some Erdogan supporters used variations of #DEVAM to ask those critical of the president what they have had enough of.

"Enough of what? Of the fight against terror? Of a completely independent Turkey that stands tall against the world? Of the homeland? Of the state? Enough of what? We will continue to the end" one user wrote.

Other users linked the anti-Erdogan #TAMAM campaign to the 2013 anti-government Gezi Park protests.

Taylan Kulaçoğlu posted that the authorities were "mad about this TAMAM issue... because it reminds them of the opposition that organised on Twitter prior to Gezi".

Skip Twitter post by @TaylanKulacogIu Bu T A M A M mevzusuna AKP'lierin çıldırmasının tek sebebi sadece seçimler değil, Gezi öncesi Twitterda örgütlenen muhallefeti anımsattığı için bu denli yükleniyorlar, korkuları biraz da bundan..

Neyse, Günaydın T A M A M ! pic.twitter.com/wv6A6D5ARN — Taylan Kulaçoğlu (@TaylanKulacogIu) May 9, 2018 Report

While #TAMAM has been widely used to criticise the government, censorship by the Turkish authorities is prevalent and well documented.

Twitter's Transparency report 2017 revealed that Turkey was at the top of the list of countries that had asked the social media platform to remove content.

Reflecting on this governmental control, prominent lawyer Kerem Altiparmak suggested that if a million people are using the term TAMAM on social media, the number of people who wish to express the notion, but don't, must be much higher.

Skip Twitter post by @KeremALTIPARMAK İşe başvururken, terfi alırken, ihaleye girerken, nefes alırken bile sosyal medya hesaplarına bakılıyor. Bu korku iklimine rağmen milyonlarca T A M A M yazılıyorsa gerçek T A M A M ların on milyonlarla ifade edilmesi gerekiyor. — Kerem ALTIPARMAK (@KeremALTIPARMAK) May 9, 2018 Report

Turkish authorities have previously restricted access to social media sites including Twitter and Facebook, and blocked all access to Wikipedia in 2017.

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, referenced the hashtag while calling on Mr Erdogan to "unblock Wikipedia and to listen to the people".

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