At least a dozen people have been wounded after a grenade was thrown into a packed bar by a man brandishing a Kalashnikov rifle in the French Alpine city of Grenoble last night.
Two of the victims were said to be ‘critical’ – one with chest injuries – following the explosion at around 8pm on Wednesday.
All the windows of Aksehir – a bar in the Olympic Village district of Grenoble – were blown out, in what was undoubtedly a planned attack.
‘It happened on the Claude Kogan square, late on Wednesday night,’ said local council official Chloé Pantel.
Speaking from the scene, she said: ‘It was a criminal act, most likely a grenade.’
François Touret de Coucy, the deputy prosecutor of Grenoble, confirmed the theory, saying that it was ‘a grenade thrown by someone that caused the explosion.’
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, he said.
Mr Touret de Coucy said no theory for the attack had yet been ruled out, although terrorism was not being prioritised. He did not identify any of the victims.
Emergency services work near the scene of an explosion at a bar where a grenade was thrown, in Grenoble
Ambulances are pictured at the scene of the explosion in the French Alpine city
Police investigators lay down evidence markers at the scene of explosion in a bar in Grenoble
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.
Nearby streets were being sealed off, and locals advised to stay indoors.
All the injured were taken to the Grenoble Alpes University Hospital.
Eric Piolle, the Mayor of Grenoble, condemned ‘with the greatest firmness a criminal act of unprecedented violence’, and thanked ‘the emergency and security forces for their rapid intervention.’
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.
‘We are at a tipping point and the choice we have today is a choice between general mobilisation or the Mexicanisation of the country,’ he said.
Mayor of Grenoble Eric Piolle talks to the media near the scene of an explosion
Interim prosecutor of Grenoble Francois Touret de Coussy talks to the media near the scene of an explosion at a bar in Grenoble on Wednesday
A view os a telesiege station at the L’Alpe Du Grand Serre resort, in the North Alps in La Morte municipality near Grenoble
Thousands of British tourists have descended on the Grenoble area, on skiing and snowboarding holidays. Pictured is the L’Alpe Du Grand Serre resort near Grenoble
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.
The deadliest single terrorist attack ever in the country came in November 2015 when 130 people were killed during one night in Paris.
Suicide bombers pledging allegiance to ISIS targeted the Stade de France, cafés, restaurants and the Bataclan music venue, where 90 died.
Earlier in the year, two Paris-born gunmen linked to Al-Qaeda broke into the offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine, leaving 17 people dead inside and three outside.
