A police source, on Tuesday, reported that the latest victims of a turf war between drug dealers, in the French port city of Marseille, were a 63-year-old man who was found dead and another who was badly wounded.

According to the prosecutor's office, neither of the two men was known to have had any prior involvement in drug trades in the crime-plagued city.

The police reported that the elderly man was shot in the chest and had lost his life long before the medics arrived at the scene. The police source further noted that the shooting took place overnight given that it took place near a fast-food outlet situated near a drug dealing point in the Busserine housing estate.

In a Facebook post, the mayor, Marion Bareille, considered the man to have been a "collateral victim".

As for the survivor, a man in his thirties, he had sustained gunshot wounds in the back and lower limbs.

The drug war has already claimed the life of 17 people, most of whom were young men, since the start of 2023. 

The latest death in the drug war was an 18-year-old boy who was found with a gunshot wound to the head at the foot of a known drug-dealing building. Prior to that, in March, a man was found burned to death in the boot of a torched car in Busserine.

The prosecutor's office revealed that in 2022, about 32 people were killed as part of an ongoing war within the greater Marseille region. Out of the 32 death, 30 were directly linked to "drug trafficking", according to the office.

The office also highlighted that 28 people were killed within the city itself.

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