Third fatal shooting in a week

The city of Marseille has been badly struck with three shootings in the area this week alone Copyright Adrian Pingston

The shoot-out took place around 11pm last night at a snack bar in the area of Saint-Antoine, taking the life of a 41 year-old man and seriously injuring a 32-year-old.

Public prosecutor Jacques Dallest told French newspaper 20 Minutes, "The incident involved one shooter, perhaps with a second individual. He started shooting inside the bar, killing one man and seriously injuring another, who was possibly an employee."

The shoot-out reportedly involved a Kalachnikov automatic weapon, leaving a total of 30 gun cartridges and bullet marks at the crime scene.

"We don’t know if the man killed was a customer or worked in the bar," Mr Dallest added.

The injured man was rushed to a hospital in the north of the city, after he was reportedly shot five times.

The shooting rounds off a week of violence in the city. The first shooting took place during a police chase in the early hours of Monday 28th in Vitrolles, north of Marseille. Convicted criminal Patrick Lombard, aged 29, was allegedly shot accidentally by his accomplice. A police officer was also left seriously injured.

The next day, a Romanian man was also shot dead by police after a burglary in the northern part of the city.

Earlier this year, interior minister Claude Guéant installed a new senior official, Alain Gardère, to combat crime in Marseille. Guéant also vowed to deploy 360 additional police officers to the streets of the city, including 200 from the anti-riot CRS squad.

Louise Kirby