Photos of a woman being surrounded by police and apparently ordered to remove her body-covering swimwear by police on a beach in Nice, France have surfaced online as several French municipalities move to ban so-called burkinis.

According to photos posted online, the incident occurred on the beach by Nice’s Promenade des Anglais. Photos posted online show armed police officers approaching a woman lying on the beach wearing what appears to be black leggings and a blue head-covering and matching top.

As police stand over her, the woman appears to remove her top. Other beachgoers, most clad in bathing suits and bikinis, can be seen watching the incident unfold in the background.

The incident happened near the site of the Bastille Day truck attack in which more than 80 people were killed.

More than 10 towns in France have banned the burkini, swimwear which covers most of the body and is favoured by some Muslim women.

The move has caused further tensions and debate in France over religious rights, secularism and the country’s attempts to deal with issues of security in the wake of multiple terror attacks linked to Islamic extremists.

In another incident on a Cannes beach caught on camera in recent days, a police officer can be seen approaching a Muslim woman dressed in a burkini and headscarf on a beach and telling her to take it off. According to French reports, the woman, a mother of two, received a ticket that stated she was not wearing “an outfit respecting good morals and secularism.”

Cannes has been cracking down on burkinis, claiming the women wearing them are “manifesting religious affiliations in an ostentatious way.”

Earlier this month, Cannes Mayor David Lisnard issued an ordinance forbidding beachwear that “doesn’t respect good morals and secularism. He cited security concerns in the ban.

People have expressed their outrage over the burkini ban on social media, where the hashtag #BurkiniGate has gained traction.

But there are some people online who have expressed support for the ban on burkinis: