Masked gang kill one and wound five after attack at wedding ceremony
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 – fired numerous rounds as a group stepped outside for to smoke, regional newspaper Le Républicain Lorrain reported.
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 and come from the area around Metz to the south of Thionville, according to town mayor Pierre Cuny.
In a Facebook post, he offered ‘moral support to the victims and newlyweds‘, Le Monde reported.
‘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.’
The source said: ‘The wedding was not targeted as such, it was people who were at the wedding.’
Police believe the attack was linked to a settling of scores involving drug trafficking.
They are investigating the so-far unknown origin of the vehicle used in the attack, and whether it had crossed the border into the country.
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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