French woman on vacation, 2 others killed in shootout

PARIS – French police hunted multiple suspects Monday after a woman on vacation and two local residents were killed in a shooting near a service station in a southern town.

The 57-year-old French traveller and her husband were apparently caught in a settling of scores Sunday night between local drug dealers fighting for territory, Vice Prosecutor Dominique Mirkovic told reporters.

The local residents, ages 29 and 30, were known to police for drug infractions, the prosecutor said. The vacationing woman’s husband was injured but his life is not in danger. The victims were not identified.

Mirkovic said police found signs of 29 gunshots fired around a car wash in the town of Ollioules near the Mediterranean Sea. Rattled by the violence, the mayor of Ollioules pleaded for more security resources.

French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner tweeted that the government put “all means in place to find and arrest the perpetrators.”