five seriously injured, hundreds of people involved… What we know

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS – A brawl involving hundreds of people. On the night of Thursday to Friday, November 1, a shooting broke out in Poitiers, in Vienne, during which five people were seriously injured. According to the Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, “400 to 600 people” witnessed or participated in this shooting.

“A shooting at the Couronneries in Poitiers left 5 injured last night”, also indicated the prefect of Vienne in a message posted on the social network tensions between groups”, which required “the intervention of the police and the gendarmerie”. Here is what we know about this incident.

• A shooting in front of a restaurant

The events began around 10:45 p.m., in the Couronneries district of Poitiers. Shots were fired near a restaurant located on Place Coimbra, according to information given by a police source to BFMTV.

“It started with a shooting at a restaurant”confirmed Bruno Retailleau on RMC, “ and it ended with a brawl between rival gangs which involved several hundred people”. The Minister of the Interior then clarified: “o“I'm talking about 4 to 600 people, according to the prefect's report,” as you can hear below.

For its part, France Bleu Poitou reports that this Friday morning the sector does not include “no visible trace of this brawl and the shots fired”and specifies that “the neighborhood was quiet before 9 a.m., the streets empty and no police visible at daybreak.”

• Five people “seriously injured”

According to the Minister of the Interior, those present were equipped with “all kinds of weapons”, and the shooting left five injured, “including several serious and even very serious”.

One of the injured, aged 15, was shot in the head and is between life and death, according to information provided by a police source to AFP. Two other teenagers, both aged 16, were also among those seriously injured.

• An incident “related to drug trafficking”

This fight is “linked of course to drug trafficking, I can confirm it to you”, declared the Minister of the Interior. “We don’t discover the problem. I think we're at a tipping point.”he also estimated, while he must go to Rennes where a five-year-old child is between life and death after being shot in the head last Saturday, as part of a settlement of account linked to drug trafficking.

“Today, drug scum no longer have limits”added Bruno Retailleau. “These are individuals who use the most ferocious, most violent means to settle scores, to satisfy their greed”he again denounced.

For her part, the mayor of Poitiers Léonore Moncond'huy deplored “a new episode of unacceptable violence for the neighborhood”. She calls “the responsibility of each person to maintain peace”. The prefecture declared that police reinforcements will be deployed this Friday.

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