Five injured in gang shooting, mass brawl in Poitiers, France

Nov. 1 (UPI) — At least five people were injured after a gun battle led to a mass brawl in the city of Poitiers, French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said on Friday.

There were three teenagers among the wounded in the incident on Thursday evening, which began amid a conflict between gangs over drug trafficking and culminated in a brawl involving hundreds of people, Retailleu said.

“What started as a shooting in a restaurant ended in a fight between rival gangs involving hundreds of people,” Retailleau told BFMTV/RMC Radio. “A 15-year-old boy who was shot in the head was in critical condition.”

Gunfire from a car hit the restaurant and bar on Place Coimbra in Poitiers with about a dozen bullets. The responding police were attacked by youths in the middle of the battle between the rival gangs.

France Info, citing police sources, said the violence occurred in phases involving an estimated between 400 and 600 people throughout Thursday evening – but rarely more than 100 at a time.

Retailleau complained what he called “Mexicanization.” of France with shootings in what he said was once quiet western France, where drug gangs know no borders.

Poitiers Mayor Léonore Moncond’huy called the mass brawl and shooting “a new episode of unacceptable violence.”

‘The youth of those involved is particularly worrying. I call on everyone’s responsibility to maintain calm in the city and welcome the increased presence of security forces,” she wrote on X.

Retailleau said France was at a “tipping point” in drug violence.