One person died and five were injured when a masked gang armed with Kalashnikovs and a shotgun attacked a wedding in France.
Believed to be linked to drug traffickers settling scores, the attack took place at Eden Palace reception hall in the northeastern city of Thionville overnight.
Roughly 100 hundred wedding guests were present, many of them members of the local Turkish community in the city near the German and Luxembourg borders.
One man in his thirties was killed, and three people – including a pregnant woman – were seriously injured in the attack shortly after 1am this morning.
Three attackers – men who wearing face coverings and black hoodies – opened fire as a group stepped outside for to smoke.
They had arrived in a 4×4 described as ‘probably a BMW’.
By the time police arrived, the perpetrators had fled the scene, leaving one dead, three injured and a glass door riddled with bullets in their wake.
Two are believed to be in life-threatening condition.
The pregnant woman, who suffered minor injuries, was left in shock after the attack. One man was wounded by glass shards.
All are between 25 and 50 years old.
‘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.’
Police believe the attack was linked to a settling of scores involving drug trafficking.
The source said: ‘The wedding was not targeted as such, it was people who were at the wedding.’
This region has seen gang violence before, with five people injured when shooting reupted between viral gangs 13 miles away in the town of Villerupt in May 2023.
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