Marseille police come under fire in tense France
No injuries reported after shooting in area known from drug violence; incident comes as French PM due to visit city
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MARSEILLE, France — A police operation was launched Monday in a housing estate in the French city of Marseille where residents said “Kalashnikov shots” were fired “in the air”, sources close to the case said, adding there were no victims.
According to an AFP photographer on site, special forces entered the La Castellane estate, which is known for being a drug trafficking hotspot.
The outbreak of violence in the notorious estate, where a 25-year-old was shot dead last month in a settling of scores, came as Prime Minister Manuel Valls was due to visit the southern port city later Monday on a trip focused on security issues.
It was not immediately clear what sparked the shots, but Marseille has for years had a reputation as a hotbed of crime that has prompted some politicians to call for the army to be sent in to police the city’s toughest neighborhoods.
Police say many murders in the city are linked to turf wars between multiple rival gangs battling for control of the drugs trade in the city’s poorest neighborhoods.
The violence, they say, is aggravated by the easy availability of high-caliber weapons, with Kalashnikov automatic rifles being the murder instrument of choice.
In 2013, Valls, who was then interior minister, had said that entire neighborhoods were “abandoned to the dealers.”
Ironically, he was due to visit the city again Monday afternoon to salute the “excellent” results of measures taken over more than two years to fight crime.
According to the source close to the case, who wished to remain anonymous, residents in the La Castellane estate alerted police earlier on Monday that the shots were fired by “five to ten people.”
Children who were in a creche in the estate were moved to a neighboring school, according to the source.
Scuffles broke out between parents who wanted to fetch their kids and security forces, the AFP photographer added.
Tensions in France have remained high following a string of terror attacks in Paris last month which left 17 people dead, including at a satirical magazine and a standoff in a kosher supermarket.
Last week, an attacker attempted to stab three soldiers patrolling a Jewish community center in Nice.
The Times of Israel Community.