Two people fighting for their lives are among the at least 12 who were injured after a grenade was thrown into a packed bar by a man brandishing a Kalashnikov rifle in Grenoble.
In a “criminal act of unprecedented violence”, all the windows of Aksehir were blown out following the explosion on Wednesday evening, with emergency services swarming the area into the early hours at a time when many UK holidaymakers are in the French Alpine city.
Two of the victims were in a critical condition, one with chest injuries, after the incident at around 8pm in the Claude Kogan square in the Olympic Village district, while at least a dozen were wounded in total.
Francois Touret de Coucy, the deputy prosecutor of Grenoble, said at the scene: “Someone came in and threw a grenade, apparently without saying a word, and ran away."
He said the bar is in a socially deprived area frequented by numerous drug gangs, and a man was seen brandishing a Kalashnikov rifle that was not fired.
No motive had yet been ruled out, he said, although terrorism was not being prioritised by investigators. French newspaper Le Monde reported Mr Touret de Coucy said the incident "may be linked to a settling of scores”.
The bar – which is named after a town in the Konya Province of Turkey – was surrounded by police and firefighters by the early hours of Thursday morning, when no arrests had yet been made.
The area had been cordoned off and nearby streets were being sealed off, with locals advised to stay indoors.
All the injured were taken to the Grenoble Alpes University Hospital. None of them have been named by authorities.
Eric Piolle, the mayor of Grenoble, condemned “with the greatest firmness a criminal act of unprecedented violence” and thanked emergency services.
It came at a time when thousands of British tourists are in the Grenoble area, on skiing and snowboarding holidays.
Grenoble's Olympic Village was built for the 1968 Winter Games.
Kalashnikovs are often used by gangs in France, especially in drugs-related crime.
In November, interior minister Bruno Retailleau said they were being used in numerous towns and cities around France, describing the country as “at a tipping point”.
The drugs trade in France has long centred on major cities such as Marseille, where at least 17 drug-related killings were reported last year.
But the problem is increasingly moving out to other places, including to areas normally associated with tourism.
Kalashnikovs were also used during a horrifying series of bomb, gun and knife attacks carried out by Islamic State and al-Qaeda operatives from 2015.
