Two dead and one wounded by gunfire in Marseille

Europe 1 with AFP 06:56, September 29, 2023

Two men were shot dead and a third wounded Thursday night in a shootout in the working-class neighborhoods of northern Marseille, AFP learned from firefighters and police sources. The facts occurred on the public road around 19:40 p.m. in the Chutes-Lavie district, in the 4th arrondissement of Marseille, according to these sources. One of the two victims died instantly while the second died "20 to 30 minutes after the first," one of the police sources told AFP.

A burned-out car found

"The perpetrator, armed with a long weapon, fled" in a vehicle, according to another police source. This vehicle was initially presented as belonging to a local elected official. But, according to a police source, it would in fact be a license plate usurpation, the elected official is still in possession of his vehicle.

A burned car was found a little later in a park, not far from the scene of the shooting, added the police source, adding that it could not be known at this stage if it was that of the perpetrator or perpetrators of the shooting.

The link with drug trafficking not yet established

These two new murders, whose link with drug trafficking that plagues the second city of France is not yet established, come more than two weeks after the last homicide officially linked by investigators to the war between gangs for the control of drug outlets in the Phocaean city. The person targeted was then a 56-year-old man, killed in the Estaque district, in the 16th arrondissement, in the north of the city. Since the beginning of the year in Marseille, 42 people, according to an AFP count, have lost their lives in violence linked to drug trafficking, including three collateral victims.