The footage shows three officers – armed with batons and pepper spray – waiting for the women wearing a headscarf as she finished swimming in the sea at Cannes.
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At the Promenade des Anglais beach in Nice a middle-aged woman was asleep on the sand when four police officers approached her and ordered her to remove the light blue headscarf and matching burkini she was wearing.
After the woman removed her head covering and top the cops apparently issued her a warning and fine.
Villeneuve-Loubet, just west of Nice, was among the first of about 15 French towns to ban the burkini, triggering a fierce debate in France and elsewhere about the wearing of the full-body swimsuit, women’s rights and secularity.
A total of fifteen French towns have banned burkinis, including nearby Cannes, where a mother-of-two was fined on Tuesday for wearing leggings, a tunic and a headscarf.
She says she was then told that beach users had to wear “proper dress”.
Mathilde Cousin, who was also present on the beach and witnessed the whole incident, said, “The saddest thing was that people were shouting ‘go home, ‘ some were applauding the police”.
Cannes has been the epicenter for fining women for wearing burkinis.
She was given a ticket, which, according to the French news agency AFP, cited she was not wearing “an outfit respecting good morals and secularism”.
After initially refusing to undress in front of the officers who were reportedly holding tear gas canisters, she was issued with an on-the-spot fine while other people on the beach allegedly shouted insults, telling her to “go home”.
Ms Cusin said: “It was pretty violent”.
The ban on the burkini – a full-body swimsuit designed for Muslim women – was initiated by a number of French beach resorts earlier this month. “I had the impression of a pack going after a woman sitting on the ground, crying with her daughter”.
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A lower court in Nice ruled on Monday (local time) that the burkini ban was “necessary, appropriate and proportionate” to prevent public disorder.
