A 24-year-old woman was fatally struck in the head by a stray gunshot aimed at a drug-dealing hotspot in her apartment in the French city of Marseille.
The bullet penetrated a window panel in the woman's bedroom, according to the sources.
The escalating violence between drug organizations in Marseille has resulted in at least 40 deaths this year. The woman is at least the third unsuspecting member of the public to die as a result of such attacks.
She was initially left brain-dead after a burst of Kalashnikov gunfire hit the third-floor flat she resided in with her mother in the Saint-Thys neighborhood on Sunday night.
She was admitted to the hospital after suffering a grievous head injury and was in imminent danger of passing away. According to Marseille prosecutor Dominique Laurens, she died early on Tuesday morning.
The prosecutor added in a statement that the gunshot occurred close to a pharmacy known to police as a drug-selling location.
Police discovered 23 Kalashnikov shell casings at the crime site, and Ms. Laurens stated that the woman was struck by a random second round fired into the air after an initial burst of gunfire.
According to the prosecutor, three additional apartments in the building were also struck by gunfire, but none of the residents were injured.
Frédérique Camilleri, the police superintendent for the department of Bouches-du-Rhône, of which Marseille is a part, stated, "Drug gangs are indiscriminately using weapons of war to conquer new territory." She added that additional police forces were being deployed in the area.
The French minister of the interior, Gérald Darmanin, referred to the incident as a "absolute tragedy" and vowed additional resources for the police. In Marseille, he inaugurated new quarters for the elite French police unit Raid.
Territorial conflicts between competing drug gangs in Marseille have been a source of bloodshed in the city's history for quite some time.
The most recent attacks, however, have taken place at a particularly volatile time for the Mediterranean port city, which is currently playing host to matches for the Rugby World Cup and will also be welcoming Pope Francis later this year.
In addition, a man in his fifties was found shot to death on Monday evening in a neighborhood located in the economically depressed northern part of the city.
This is the region of the city that is most frequently associated with drug trafficking. Two individuals riding a motorcycle are being investigated as potential shooters in that incident.
Yoda and DZ Mafia are allegedly responsible for the majority of the shootings that take place in the northern regions of Marseille, mainly in the high-rise neighborhood of La Paternelle.
According to the office of the prosecutor in France's second largest city, Marseille, there have been more than 85 homicides or attempted homicides linked to drug trafficking in the city so far this year, about 42 people have been killed and 109 more have been injured.
The war on drugs is progressively entangling more and more of the nation's smaller regional cities as well. Nimes, in southern France, was the site of the shooting deaths of an 18-year-old male and a 10-year-old boy last month.
