Drug shooting devolves into massive brawl involving hundreds in western France

Hundreds were involved in a shootout and brawl over drug trafficking that seriously injured five in the French city of Poitiers, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said Friday.

What began as a shooting outside a restaurant on Thursday night descended into a massive fight between rival gangs involving “between 400 and 600 people,” Retailleau told BFMTV/RMC radio, though BFM said it hadn’t yet been able to confirm the figures. The outlet reported that among those hurt was a 15-year-old who sustained serious wounds to the head.

Mayor Léonore Moncond’huy said that the incident was “unacceptable” in a statement on X. She added that the “youth of those involved” was “particularly worrying.”

Retailleau said he would travel later to the northwestern city of Rennes, where a 5-year old boy was shot in the head in another drug-related incident last week, according to local media.

In his interview, Retailleau condemned what he called the “Mexicanization” of France.

“These shootings aren’t happening in South America, they’re happening in Rennes, Poitiers, in this western France once renowned for its tranquility. We’re at a tipping point,” he said.

France has in recent years struggled with a rise in drug-related crime in Marseille, the historical center of the country’s illicit narcotics trade, and in small and medium sized cities across the country.