France: One Dead, Five Injured During Shooting At Turkish Wedding Ceremony

The attack in Thionville could be linked to settling scores between drug traffickers, among the injured was a pregnant woman.

The perpetrators used automatic weapons and shotguns.

One person was killed and five others were injured after masked gunmen opened fire at a wedding ceremony in north-east France. The incident occurred on Sunday, at a Turkish wedding where about 100 people were in attendance. 

According to AFP, sources suggested the attack in Thionville — located close to the borders of Luxembourg and Germany — could be linked to settling scores between drug traffickers. 

The police told the news agency that around quarter past one, a group of people walked out of the hall in the front for a smoke when three heavily armed men arrived at the scene and opened fire towards their direction.

According to BBC, in a statement, prosecutor Nancy Francois Capin-Dulhoste said that perpetrators had fired “several dozen times”. The victims were between the ages of 25 and 50, among the injured was a pregnant woman, and they were rushed to a nearby Bel-Air hospital.

The three gunmen had arrived at a 4x4 car, probably a BMW, and had fled the scene soon by the time emergency services reached the scene. It wasn’t immediately clear where the vehicle had come from. They used automatic weapons and shotguns, as per BBC.

An AFP source said that the wedding wasn’t the target of the attack but the people attending the wedding were. The deceased, a man in his 30s, and the injured are known to authorities for drug-related cases.

The police are investigating whether the vehicle came from Germany or Luxembourg, BBC reported a local newspaper as saying. 

The aftermath of the shooting was evident, as a glass door pierced with bullet holes could be seen on Sunday morning, as per AFP.