Five people wounded in drug trafficking shootout in western France

A massive shootout linked to drug trafficking has left a teenager and four others seriously wounded in western France, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said Friday, in the latest such gunfight to injure children.

The shootout erupted in front of a restaurant overnight in the western city of Poitiers, Retailleau told BFMTV/RMC radio. 

"What started as a shooting at a restaurant ended up in a fight between rival gangs that involved several hundred people", Retailleau said.

The 15-year-old boy wounded was between life and death, he said.

Violence broke out in the Couronneries neighbourhood, local authorities said on X.

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The minister warned that the country was at a "tipping point" when it came to drug trafficking violence, saying that he was planning to travel later in the day to the northwestern city of Rennes, where a five-year-old child was also between life and death after being shot on Saturday in another fire exchange related to drug trafficking.

(AFP)