5 injured during gang shooting, mass brawl in Poitiers, France

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

Three teenagers were among those injured in the incident on Thursday night, which began amid a conflict between gangs over drug trafficking that erupted into a brawl that went on to include hundreds of people Retailleu said.

"What started as a shooting at a restaurant ended up in a fight between rival gangs that involved several hundred people," Retailleau told BFMTV/RMC Radio. "A 15-year-old boy who was shot in the head was in a critical condition."

Gunfire from a car hit the restaurant and bar at the Place Coimbra in Poitiers with roughly a dozen bullets. Responding police were attacked by young people in the midst of the fight between the rival gangs.

France Info, citing police sources, said the violence occurred in phases that involved an estimated 400-600 people throughout Thursday evening -- but rarely involved more than 100 at any one time.

Retailleau bemoaned what he called the "Mexicanization" of France with shootings in what he said was a once-tranquil western France where drug trafficking gangs have no limits.

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 for 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 drug violence "tipping point."