Teenager shot during a shootout in a French drug gang dies from his wounds

A 15-year-old boy was shot in the head during a shooting bloody shootout between drug gangs in the west of France died of his injuries on Saturday, the regional prosecutor announced Minister of the Interior warned that the country was at risk of “Mexicanization” due to rising drug crime.

The teenager had been in intensive care since the shooting on Thursday evening in the city of Poitiers, which has raised alarm across the country about rising violence in the city. gang wars that make the streets unsafe.

Four other minors, aged between 15 and 16, were also injured by gunshots fired outside a restaurant in the city in the incident that involved dozens of people.

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

Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau said Friday that France’s fight against drug-related violence is at a “tipping point,” with the nation facing a choice between “full mobilization or the ‘Mexicanization’ of the country.

Mexico More than 450,000 drug-related murders have been committed since the government began using the military to combat its notorious drug cartels in 2006.

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

Victims can include gang members, some of whom are minors who guard trading places or work as hitmen, as well as innocent bystanders.

Poitiers’ experience on Thursday was “unprecedented” for the city of 90,000 inhabitants, Mayor Leonore Moncond’huy said, adding that it “demonstrated quite serious developments in society”.

Retailleau, a member of the right-wing Republicans and seen as a hardliner on security issues, has called for the fight against drug violence to become a “nationwide effort” since becoming interior minister in the Prime Minister’s Office. Michel Barnierthe shaky minority government.

“The ‘narco-criminals’ no longer know borders… These shootings are not happening in South America, they are happening in Rennes, in Poitiers… we are at a tipping point,” Retailleau told BFMTV.

(AFP)