Sawt Falasteen - French city reels from teen killing in drug-linked shooting

France is battling drug crime in several cities, with gangs ensnaring teenagers into dealing.

The shooting on Thursday evening, which also wounded a 13-year-old and a 14-year-old, is the latest deadly incident that could be linked to trafficking in France in a week.

The 15-year-old was shot dead in the hall of a tower block in a working-class neighbourhood, with the shooters pursuing another teen until he managed to hide in a 13th-floor apartment, a police source said.

"Shots were fired at the three youths," Nantes prosecutor Antoine Leroy said, adding it was probably "a settling of scores" linked to drugs.

Mayor Johanna Rolland said her city was in mourning over "a shooting very likely linked to drug trafficking".

On Thursday night, residents were in shock in the northern neighbourhood of Port-Boyer.

"I'm so fed up," said Paola, presenting herself as an aunt of the teen who was killed, urging the authorities to improve security.

"It's not normal for young people to lose their lives like this. It's unacceptable, just unacceptable. They're children," she said.

Stella, a 35-year-old who declined to give her surname, gripped the hand of her three-year-old son, whose trousers were dotted with blood.

She said her 14-year-old nephew -- who was wounded in the thigh -- and young son had been on the way to see their grandmother without her when the shooting broke out.

"I'm living a nightmare and furious that I almost lost my son," she said.

- 'People in balaclavas' -

Angeline, an 18-year-old nail technician who did not give her surname for fear of reprisal, said she had been coming back from grocery shopping with her mother and dog when the shooting occurred.

"We heard gunshots -- about 10, twice -— and I yanked my mother by the collar to get back into our building," she said.

"I just saw a lot of people -- people in balaclavas and dressed all in black -- running through the grass."

She said the neighbourhood felt increasingly insecure.

"Things have been constantly getting worse here. People are afraid, shootings are frequent," she said, saying the last before that was on Sunday.

"In the afternoons, the children's playgrounds are deserted because parents are too scared," she added.

On Monday, a fire in a tower block outside Lyon, in central-eastern France, killed a 29-year-old who threw himself from the seventh floor, as well as two other residents.

Fire was set to several floors, a police source said.

Two individuals dressed in dark clothes left the scene on a motor scooter, they said.

Investigators were looking into it possibly being a case of "violence between drug traffickers", they added.

Q.Najjar--SF-PST