An 18-year-old has been shot dead in the southern French city of Nîmes, days after a boy aged 10 was killed by gunfire in an attack linked to the drugs trade.
Both shootings took place in the Pissevin area of the city which has become plagued by drug violence.
The first victim, called Fayed, was fatally shot on Monday night while he was in a car with his uncle.
In the latest attack. the teenage victim was ambushed a few streets away.
Local prosecutor, Cécile Gensac, said it was the 10-year-old’s misfortune to be “in the wrong place at the wrong time” shortly before midnight on Monday.
Fayed was shot just 100m from his home in Pissevin. His family had no connection with drug gangs and had never had any brush with authority, the prosecutor said.
Police believe the uncle’s Renault Clio car had been wrongly linked by the killers to another shooting and Interior Minister, Gérald Darmanin, spoke of a “tit-for-tat attack between drug dealers”.
Nîmes Mayor, Jean-Paul Fournier, said he was saddened and revolted by the boy’s death and police sent an elite CRS8 team to beef up security. —BBC
