“These shootings are not happening in South America, they are happening in Rennes, Poitiers, western France, once famous for its tranquility,” Retailleau told broadcaster BFMTV.
“We are at a turning point and the choice we have today is either mobilization or Mexicanization,” he said, citing Mexico’s broader problems, including street crime and violence perpetrated by drug cartels.
“This is a new incident of violence that cannot be tolerated in our neighborhood,” Mayor Poitiers said.
Police sources said several young people were injured when shots were fired from a passing vehicle.
Photos from the scene in Place de Coimbra, a downtown area known for drug-related crime, showed the restaurant’s exterior riddled with bullet holes.
According to police, the shooting sparked a fight between rival groups in the area.
“Tensions between groups increased, necessitating the intervention of police and gendarmerie,” Bienne regional police said in a statement.
Retailleau said “400 to 600” people were involved in the scuffle.
He was due to visit Brittany’s capital, Rennes, on Friday following the Oct. 26 shooting in which a 5-year-old boy was shot in the head as he sat in a car. Authorities confirmed the shooting was also drug-related.
France’s drug trade has long been concentrated in the southern port city of Marseille, where at least 17 drug-related murders have been reported since the start of the year.
But researchers say that in recent years the influence of drug trafficking in France has spread beyond the main centers of Marseille and Paris., external From mid-sized cities to rural areas.
