A 15-year-old boy has died from a head wound in a shooting in Poitiers, western France, AFP reported on Saturday. French Interior Minister Bruno Retailo said the incident, which took place on Thursday evening, turned into a fight between rival drug gangs.
Four other people, aged 15 and 16, were also injured as a result of the shooting near the Coimbra Square on Thursday evening. Investigators are still looking for the criminal, who is suspected of being a member of a drug trafficking group.
– It started with a shooting in a restaurant. French Interior Minister Bruno Retailo said in an interview with BFM television that it ended in a clash between rival gangs involving several hundred people. He added that rival drug gangs are involved.
According to the BBC, a 15-year-old boy was seriously injured when one of the criminals shot from the car while driving to the restaurant.
BFM reported from a source close to the case that moments after the shooting, “50-60 people gathered in the square and decided to take justice themselves.” Police used tear gas to calm the crowd and begin an investigation.
The scene of the shooting of a 15-year-old boy in PoitiersENEX
Declaration of “Long and Brutal War”
Speaking to the media, Bruno Retaillo announced a “long and brutal war” against drug traffickers. – Drug dealers are everywhere, both in the city and in the countryside. There are no more restrictions for them. We are really at a turning point, said the head of the French Ministry of Internal Affairs. In his opinion, “either there will be a general mobilization for this great struggle, which will last for years and we will win, or the country will be “Mexicanized”.
Poitiers is another city where there have been clashes between drug dealers in recent days. In Rennes, located in the north-west of France, on October 26, a five-year-old child who was sitting in a car was killed by gunfire.
