CHAMPLAN: French officials expressed shock and disgust Sunday after the mayor of a Paris suburb refused to allow the two-and-a-half month old baby of a Roma family to be buried in the municipal cemetery.

Christian Leclerc, the conservative mayor of Champlan, about 23 km south of Paris, reportedly explained his refusal on the grounds that the cemetery has “few available plots.”

“Priority is given to those who pay their local taxes,” Leclerc was quoted by Le Parisien daily on Saturday as saying. He has not since been available for comment.

Laurence Rossignol, a junior government minister for the family, said on Twitter the refusal was “an inhumane humiliation” for the family, adding the hashtag #honte or “shame.”

And France’s defender of human rights, Jacques Toubon, said he was “shocked, stunned by the news.”

“It is clear there is a legal question in this case,” he told France Inter radio, adding he could “maybe take action” against any perceived discrimination.

The baby, identified only as Maria Francesca, was born on October 14 and died in the early hours of Dec.

“The mother tried to breastfeed her at 5:00 a.m. and the little girl was cold. She was dead,” said Marie-Helene Brelaud, a member of the ASEFRR association, which supports Roma families in the region.