A 15-year-old who was wounded in the head during a shooting in Poitiers in western France has died, AFP reported on Saturday. The incident, which took place on Thursday evening, turned into clashes between rival drug gangs, said French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau.
Four other people, aged 15 and 16, were also injured as a result of shots fired near Coimbra Square on Thursday evening. Investigators are still looking for the perpetrator, whom they suspect of belonging to a drug trafficking gang.
– It started with a shooting in a restaurant. It ended with a clash between rival gangs, in which several hundred people participated, said French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau in an interview for BFM television. He added that it involved rival drug gangs.
According to the BBC, a 15-year-old was seriously injured when one of the perpetrators started shooting from a car while driving up to the restaurant.
BFM learned from a source close to the case that moments after the shooting, “50 to 60 people gathered in the square and decided to take justice themselves.” The police used tear gas to calm the crowd and begin an investigation.
The scene where a 15-year-old was shot in PoitiersENEX
The announcement of a “long and merciless war”
During a conversation with the media, Bruno Retailleau announced a “long and merciless war” against drug traffickers. – Drug dealers are everywhere, both in cities and in rural areas. There are no limits for them anymore. We are truly at a turning point, said the head of the French Interior Ministry. In his opinion, “either there will be general mobilization for this great fight, which will last for years and we will win, or there will be a 'Mexicanization' of the country.”
Poitiers is another city where there have been clashes between drug dealers in recent days. In Rennes, in the north-west Franceon October 26, a five-year-old boy sitting in a car was killed as a result of a shooting.