Photo: AFPAFP · 6 Sep 2016, 16:25Published: 06 Sep 2016 16:25 GMT+02:00A shootout in Marseille that claimed two lives has brought the death toll in drug-related violence in the southern French city to 24 so far this year, according to an AFP tally. Two men were shot dead in a bar in the centre of the port city late on Monday in an apparent settling of scores, police said. "These settling of scores are very hard to prevent," an official of the police union Alliance said last week. France's second largest city, the Mediterranean port has a long-running reputation for violence linked to the drugs trade. Authorities attribute this year's spike in drug-related violence partly to a surge in police operations to dismantle competing drug-trafficking rings.

Source: The Local September 06, 2016 14:37 UTC