William Molinié, edited by Corentin Alloune with AFP 19:20 p.m., May 11, 2023

On the night of Wednesday to Thursday, a woman, aged 43, was shot dead in a housing estate near a drug sales point in Marseille. The prosecutor's office suggests that it could be a collateral victim.

A 43-year-old woman, unknown to the police and justice, was shot dead Wednesday night in Marseille, near a hotly contested drug outlet, police sources and prosecutors said.

It was hit by shots around 22:45 p.m., Traverse du Vieux-Moulin, in the heart of the city Saint-Joseph (14th arrondissement), in these popular neighborhoods in the north of the city gangrenous by drug trafficking, said these sources, confirming initial information from the daily La Provence. She died shortly after being taken to hospital.

Victims not known by police and justice services

Questioned by AFP, the Marseille prosecutor's office provided details on the course of events, explaining that "several individuals fired in bursts at the point of sale of narcotics" and that "several vehicles parked nearby" were hit.

In one of them was the forty-year-old who lost her life, as well as her 21-year-old daughter, slightly injured. "A 55-year-old man who was in another vehicle" was also hit "by projections," adds the prosecutor's office.

"The victims are not known to the police and justice," insisted the prosecutor's office, suggesting that they could be collateral victims of the war of clans in drug trafficking that bloodied Marseille. The investigation, entrusted to the judicial police, will have to confirm this.

An increase in homicides for several months

Homicides linked to drug trafficking have multiplied in recent months in the second city of France, especially in the 14th arrondissement, with already 18 deaths since January, according to an AFP count.

Collateral victims have so far been extremely rare, as have female victims. In early April, after three shootings that left four dead, according to a latest assessment, including two teenagers of 15 and 16 years, the prosecutor of Marseille, Dominique Laurens, had evoked a "logic of vendetta" between rival gangs reigning over drug trafficking.

The year 2022 had already been particularly deadly in the Bouches-du-Rhône, with 32 victims of homicide in organized gang, including 28 in Marseille, according to figures from the prosecutor's office. More than 30 of these shooting deaths in 2022 were directly "related to drug trafficking," the police prefecture said.