One person has been killed and five others wounded in north-east France after masked gunmen opened fire at a wedding ceremony, police said.
Sources suggested the attack in Thionville could be linked to a settling of scores between drug traffickers.
The shooting took place early on Sunday at a reception hallwhere about 100 people were in attendance. Two people were seriously injured and one of them was in a critical condition. The perpetrators of the shooting fled the scene.
“It was during a wedding,” a police source said. “At a quarter past one in the morning, a group of people went outside to smoke in front of the hall, and then three heavily armed men arrived and opened fire in their direction.”
The assailants arrived in a 4X4 vehicle, “probably a BMW”, the source said. It was not immediately clear where the vehicle had come from. Thionville is located close to the borders of Luxembourg and Germany.
The police source added: “The wedding was not targeted as such, it was people who were at the wedding.”
A glass door pierced with bullet holes could be seen at the scene on Sunday morning.
In the neighbouring town of Villerupt, shootings between rival gangs at a drug dealing point left five people injured in May 2023.
Emily Foster is a globe-trotting journalist based in the UK. Her articles offer readers a global perspective on international events, exploring complex geopolitical issues and providing a nuanced view of the world’s most pressing challenges.
