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Killing in Marseille brings region's shooting deaths in 2016 to 33

A 19-year-old man was shot dead in a café in the Mediterranean port in an attack by three men who the local prosecutor said are also suspected of kidnapping an aquaintance who was with him. 

La rédaction de Mediapart

This article is freely available.

French police are investigating the fatal Christmas Eve killing of a 19-year-old in Marseille in which the victim was reportedly shot 15 times, repoprts The Guardian.

Three attackers stormed a café in the city late on Saturday and opened fire using a Kalashnikov-style rifle, the prosecutor’s office said.

The Marseille prosecutor, Xavier Tarabeux, said the attackers fled the scene before police arrived and there were fears that another person may have been kidnapped.

The cafe’s 22-year-old manager was briefly detained for questioning but was released on Sunday.

The victim was not previously known to police, and it is feared that one of the people sitting with him in the café may have been taken hostage.

While investigators could not immediately confirm the attack’s motive, it appeared that the victim had been intentionally targeted as his body was found riddled with 15 bullets, a source close to the investigation said.

Read more of this AFP report published by The Guardian.