Boy, 15, shot dead in France as prosecutors blame drug war

French prosecutors say a 15-year-old boy has been killed and a boy of 13 is fighting for his life in a suspected drugs-related shooting in the western city of Nantes.

The attackers were wearing balaclavas and used automatic weapons, according to the country's Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez.

The 13-year-old is in a critical condition and a third boy was also wounded.

"The shots were fired at three young men," said Nantes prosecutor Antoine Leroy, who believed the attack was a settling of scores in relation to drug offences.

This was an assessment resolutely rejected by the 15-year-old boy's aunt, named as Paola, from Nantes' working-class neighbourhood of Port-Boyer.

She told reporters her nephew "was not a criminal".

"You shouldn't mix everything up," said Paola. "He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. He wasn't involved in any of that; he had simply come to visit a friend."

As people gathered around the police cordon, the mother of one of the victims could be heard crying in despair from her car. It's an area where high-rise apartment blocks sit along the banks of the Erdre river.

"The boys were on their way to their grandmother's house," explains Stella, 35. "I was home when it happened. A police officer called me to bring my son back and tell me my nephew was injured".

"I feel like I'm in a nightmare and I'm angry because I almost lost my son."

Angeline, 18, described hearing two bursts of around 10 gunshots, before seeing several people "hooded and dressed in black" running through the grass.

The city's Mayor, Johanna Rolland, has condemned what she calls the "drug trafficking that is plaguing the country", and emphasised the distress and intense emotion" this community was already going through after another fatal shooting at the end of last month.

On that occasion, a man was killed and another seriously wounded in the same area in a shooting also linked to drug trafficking. The gunman used a pistol before escaping.

Ms Rolland called for all police resources to be deployed to find the attackers this time around.

In 2025, several French cities brought in night-time curfews against young people to try to combat drug-related violence.

France's Ministry of Justice estimates that the number of teenagers involved in the illegal trade has risen more than four-fold in the past eight years.