Two dead, several injured in shooting in France’s Nice

Two people died and six people were injured in an armed attack in the coastal city of Nice in the south of France.

The electric scooter driver stopped outside a grocery store and opened fire with a handgun near a drug hotspot in the city, prosecutors said Monday.

17 empty cartridges were seized at the scene. The attacker first fled the scene and got into a car parked nearby.

According to authorities, the shooting is directly linked to drug trafficking. The Les Moulins area is frequently the scene of violent crime and is considered a troubled area.

Nice Mayor Éric Ciotti said in a statement to X that three of the six injured people were in serious condition and three people were “in shock”.

Ciotti called on the French government to provide the resources needed to address the situation in the Les Moulins area, criticizing staffing levels that the city has been severely lacking for years. He spoke of a “war” against drug trafficking.

Authorities said an investigation was launched, including suspicion of a planned murder by an organized gang.

Prosecutors stated that three of the injured had previous convictions for drug trafficking. None of the dead had a criminal record.