Ex-con sought after two shot dead in spree

Published on 02/07/2012 00:00

A MAN who was turned away from a nightclub in the French city of Lille returned with a gun and opened fire indiscriminately outside the building in the early hours yesterday, killing two people and wounding six others.

The shooting will likely lead to renewed debate about France’s gun laws, which were brought into public focus by the killing of seven people in March by an Islamist gunman in Toulouse and a spate of gang murders.

The Lille gunman killed a nightclub employee and a customer, both in their mid-20s, at about 3am before fleeing the scene, said Hervé Malherbe, the regional deputy police chief.

“The bouncer who knew the man turned him back. The man came back with a heavy-calibre gun, possibly a Kalashnikov, and started shooting,” he said.

Six people were injured, although none of their lives are in danger, said public prosecutor Frédéric Fèvre.

He said police were searching for Fayçal Mokhtari, 32, an ex-convict with a history of violent crime, who fled the scene in a car with an accomplice. Sources said he may have crossed into Belgium, where he has a home.

The March killings in Toulouse and gang murders in Marseille drew attention to the easy availability of illegal weapons in France and their growing use in violent crimes. The government says there are at least 7.5 million guns in legal circulation. “