France's Health Minister, Yannick Neuder, visited Grenoble University Hospital on Thursday to visit the victims of Wednesday night's grenade attack on a bar in the south of the city which left 12 people injured, two critically.
"They're being well looked afer by the medical teams here at the hospital," Neuder told reporters during his tour. "It was an attack of extraordinary violence," he added.
As Neuder met doctors and nurses at the hospital, police were continuing their search for an unidentified man who hurled the grenade into the Aksehir bar and fled.
"I heard a loud bang," said Agnes Lefebvre-Paquet, a witness in her 70s. "And I said to myself that it wasn't a firecracker. I assumed it was a neighbourhood problem."
Prosecutor François Touret-de-Courcy said the man may have also been carrying a Kalashnikov assault rifle when he went into the bar in the Olympic Village neighbourhood.
"From what we can tell, all the damage was caused by the exploding grenade," he said.
Built in 1966 and 1967 to house the 17,000 athletes taking part in the 1968 Winter Olympics, the area was hailed for its innovative approach to urban life flaunting buildings arranged around gardens and squares. The use of wood in many of the constructions was a conspicuous reference to the nearby mountains.
However, the area has latterly become renowned for petty crime.
One woman, who declined to give her name, said: "We're all shocked. I've been living in the area for 30 years and it's getting worse and worse."
Touret-de-Courcy said investigators had not yet identified a motive but did not believe it was a terrorist attack.
"It was an act of extreme violence that may be linked to a settling of scores," he added.
After touring the scene of the attack,Grenoble Mayor Eric Piolle wrote on social media: "I condemn in the strongest possible terms this criminal act of extraordinary violence."
Karim, a city employee who gave only his first name, said he was a regular at the bar. Describing it as usually calm, he added: "You go there for a coffee and a chat. But in Grenoble anything is possible."
