A
24-year-old woman has died after a stray bullet aimed at a drug-dealing hotspot
hit her in the head in her flat in the French city of Marseille.
The bullet was fired at
random and pierced a window panel in the woman's bedroom, prosecutors said.
Marseille has been rocked
by escalating violence between drug gangs, leaving at least 40 people dead this
year.
The woman is at least the
third innocent member of the public killed in such attacks.
She was initially left
brain-dead after a burst of Kalashnikov gunfire hit the third-floor flat she
lived in with her mother in the Saint-Thys neighborhood on Sunday night.
"She was admitted to
hospital with a serious wound to the head and in danger for her life. She died
in the early hours of Tuesday," said Marseille prosecutor Dominique
Laurens.
The shooting took place in
an area close to a pharmacy known to police as a drug-selling point, the
prosecutor added in a statement.
Police found 23 Kalashnikov
bullet casings at the scene and Ms Laurens said, after an initial burst of
gunfire, the woman was hit by a second round fired at random in the air.
Three other flats in the
building were also hit by bullets, but none of those residents were injured,
according to the prosecutor.
"There is unbridled
use of weapons of war to try to conquer new territory" between drug gangs
said Frédérique Camilleri, police chief for the Bouches-du-Rhône department
that Marseille is a part of.
Additional police forces
were being deployed in the area, she added.
French Interior Minister
Gérald Darmanin described the incident as an "absolute tragedy" and
promised police additional resources.
He inaugurated new premises
for France's elite Raid police unit in Marseille.
Marseille has a long
history of violence linked to turf wars between rival drug gangs.
But its latest attacks come
at a sensitive time for the Mediterranean port city which is hosting fixtures
for the Rugby World Cup and a visit from Pope Francis in September.
A 55-year-old man was also
shot dead Monday evening in a district in the deprived north of the city, the
area most often linked to drug trafficking. The alleged perpetrators in that
shooting were two people riding a motorcycle.
Two gangs, Yoda and DZ
Mafia, are said to be behind most of the shootings in northern areas of
Marseille, particularly in the high-rise district of La Paternelle.
There have been more than
90 murders or attempted murders linked to drug trafficking in France's second
city this year, according to the Marseille prosecutor's office - 43 people have
died and 109 more have been wounded.
Smaller regional cities are
also increasingly becoming caught up in the drug war.
An 18-year-old and a boy
aged 10 were shot dead within a few days last month in the southern city of
Nîmes in attacks linked to the drug trade.
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