Police unions in France have threatened to suspend conducting confinement checks on members of the public unless they have access to protective masks.

The warning came hours after reports that a 51-year old gendarme had died at his home in Val-de-Marne, in the greater Paris region, after contracting coronavirus. He was the first member of the French force to die of the virus.

The officer, a married father of three, was not reported to have been in contact with the public, and it is not known at this stage how he caught coronavirus.

All the country's police unions, representing every level of the French force, said in a statement: "If protective means are lacking in the force, police officers will only conduct truly urgent missions and will no longer undertake confinement checks."

Some 100,000 officers have been dispatched to police the lockdown in France, manning roadblocks and stopping people in the street to check they have a viable reason to be outside and have filled in the required form.

The unions' "solemn warning" came a day after the interior ministry ordered police to hand over all stocks of highly protective FFP2 masks to health workers who are running out. The police still have less effective surgical masks, but unions say those are running out.