Bloody gangland shootout puts France at 'tipping point'

France's struggle with drug-related violence is at a "tipping point" after a bloody shootout gravely wounded one teenager and left four more hurt, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said Friday.

Police were called out around 10:45 pm (2145 GMT) on Thursday night in response to gunshots outside a restaurant in a working-class neighbourhood of western city Poitiers, a security source said.

"Hundreds of people were in the area and a fight broke out, with some of the youths accusing others of being close with the suspected perpetrator" of the shooting, prefect Jean-Marie Girier told news channel BFMTV.

France's interior minister, Bruno Retailleau (centre), pictured in Paris before the shooting on Oct 31, said ‘trafficking gangs today have no limits’.AFP

Responders found a 15-year-old lying on the ground with a bullet wound to the head, the police source said.

He was brought to hospital while paramedics treated two more -- a 15-year-old and a 16-year-old -- for serious gunshot wounds.

Another two 16-year-olds came to hospital themselves with lighter wounds, one to the scalp and another to a foot.

Police said they found around 10 bullet casings from .22-calibre ammunition at the scene.

"The 'narco thugs' have no limits any more... These shootouts aren't happening in South America, they're happening in Rennes, in Poitiers... we're at a tipping point," Retailleau told BFMTV.

France faced a choice between "full mobilisation or the 'Mexicanisation' of the country," he added, saying the "skirmish between rival bands involved several hundred people" -- although a police source later said that between 50 and 60 actually engaged in fighting.

Officers used tear gas to break up the fight, restoring order around 45 minutes after arriving on the scene, the source added.

The prefecture in the Vienne department where Poitiers is located said police reinforcements would be deployed to the city's Couronneries neighbourhood by Friday evening.

There were lingering "tensions between different groups" following the skirmish, it added.

'Serious developments'

Gangland violence long associated with Mediterranean port city Marseille has expanded into other French cities in recent years.

In Marseille alone, 17 people have been killed in so-called "narchomicides" (drug-related killings) this year -- down from a bloody toll of 49 in the whole of 2023.

Victims can include gang members, some of them minors guarding dealing spots or employed as hitmen, but also innocent bystanders.

In northwestern city Rennes, a five-year-old child was struck in the head by two bullets on October 27 during a car chase hours after a drug-related shooting.

The boy's life was still in danger, Retailleau said Friday, adding that "the investigation is moving forward" and that reinforcements would also be sent to Rennes.

In May, a man with multiple convictions and ties to the drug trade was freed in a brutally violent interception of a prison convoy outside Incarville in northern France.

Heavily-armed fighters killed two prison guards and wounded three more, and the escapee Mohamed Amra is still on the run.

In southeastern city Valence, a man was struck in the head late Thursday by a bullet during a gunfight outside a nightclub. Police said the shooting was related to drug trafficking.

Poitiers' experience on Thursday was "unprecedented" for the city of 90,000, mayor Leonore Moncond'huy said, adding that it "demonstrated rather serious developments in society".

Retailleau has called for the battle against drug violence to become a "nationwide effort" since becoming interior minister in Prime Minister Michel Barnier's shaky minority government.

Similar resources are needed to break the drug trade as have been deployed to fight terrorism, Retailleau believes, promising on Friday to create a "task force" to fight it.

Drug trafficking is estimated to bring in revenues of between three and six billion euros ($3.3-6.6 billion) annually in France, according to a Senate investigative committee.

Retailleau is expected to announce further anti-trafficking measures next week in Marseille alongside Justice Minister Didier Migaud.