One dead, five injured as masked gunmen open fire at wedding ceremony in France: Report
French police
One person was killed and five others wounded in northeastern France when several masked gunmen opened fire at a wedding ceremony, police sources said on Sunday.Sources suggested that the attack in the northeastern city of Thionville was linked to a settling of scores between drug traffickers.
The shooting took place at a reception hall overnight Saturday to Sunday, with around a hundred people in attendance.
Two people were seriously injured and one of them was in a critical condition. The perpetrators of the shooting have 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.
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Members of law enforcement believe that a settling of scores linked to drug trafficking was behind the violence.
"The wedding was not targeted as such, it was people who were at the wedding," the source said. 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.