Two killed in shooting in France’s Marseille

Europe

MARSEILLE – A woman and a man, both in their twenties, were killed in a shooting late Saturday in French Mediterranean city Marseille and three others were hurt, prosecutors told AFP.

“The five people were in their car in the car park of a McDonald’s when a vehicle pulled up alongside, killing the 22-year-old male driver and the 25-year old female front passenger with bursts of fire from a Kalashnikov” assault rifle, the city’s chief prosecu­tor Nicolas Bessone said Sun­day.

Of the three wounded pas­sengers in the rear — two men and one woman — two were seriously hurt, they added.

All three men in the car were known to police for involve­ment in the drug trade and vio­lence in the region around the southern city of Toulon, Bes­sone said, while the women had no criminal record.

“The profile of these individuals al­lows us to see we are in the context of ‘narco homicides’… which may have a very strong link to drug trafficking,” Bes­sone later told a press confer­ence.

The shooting took place just before 11:00 pm (2200 GMT) in Marseille’s 16th dis­trict, one of the poorest areas of France’s second-largest city.

Police are investigating for murder and attempted mur­der as part of a criminal gang.__The Nation