One dead and five injured in shooting at wedding in France

Police officers inspect the site of a shooting that occurred overnight during a wedding party. A person was killed and four others wounded during the shooting. Jean-Christophe Verhaegen/AFP/dpa

A shooting at a wedding celebration in France resulted in one fatality and five injuries in the early hours of Sunday, French prosecutors said.

One young man was killed and five other victims were injured, three of them critically, they said.

There were also two minor injuries caused by flying shards of glass, including a pregnant woman who also suffered a shock, the local newspaper Le Républicain Lorrain reported.

When the emergency services arrived, the shooters had already fled.

Around 100 people were celebrating in a banquet hall in the town of Thionville in the region of Lorraine near the German and Luxembourg borders when three masked attackers opened fire with two assault rifles and a shotgun, the prosecutors said.

The shooters arrived in an off-road vehicle at around 1 am on Sunday (2300 GMT Saturday) and initially shot at three people outside the ballroom, where members of the Turkish community were celebrating a wedding, according to media reports.

They then reportedly fired at two people at the entrance and fled in their vehicle.

The public prosecutor's office said that an investigation has been opened, and the motives for the shooting remain unknown.

The suspects face charges of gang-related murder and attempted gang-related murder.

© Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH