Shooting near mosque in Avignon, France, leaves several injured

Hooded attackers opened fire near a mosque in the southern French city of Avignon during an incident the country's prosecutor's office has said was not terrorist-related.

French media said eight people were injured in the shooting, which took place near to the Arrahma mosque at about 10.30pm local time (11.30pm BST) on Sunday 2 June. Associated Press reported the attack to be a settling of scores by local criminals. The mosque was not the target, said a local prosecutor, and the perpetrators fled the scene.

The attackers were said to have arrived in a Renault Clio armed with a rifle and a handgun, the La Provence newspaper reported.

At least four people were at the site of the incident and also a family of four on the second floor of a building received shrapnel injuries from stray bullets.

The paper said that police were pursuing the line that the incident may have been due to a dispute among young people, although France is in a state of high alert following terror attacks in Paris and Nice.

In November 2015, shows Arrahma Mosque's Imam condemned terrorism following the Paris attacks. On 30 June, a man in Paris tried to ram his car into a crowd outside a mosque but was stopped by its protective barriers.