PARIS (AFP) - An 18-year-old girl was killed in a gun battle with police in southeastern France in the early hours of Wednesday, prosecutors said, the latest in a nationwide string of violent traffic stops.
The girl was the passenger in a vehicle whose driver refused to stop when ordered and fired shots at officers, Grenoble prosecutor Eric Vaillant alleged in a statement.
She “died of the effects of a shot that hit her in the neck” when police returned fire, Vaillant added, while the wounded driver was brought to hospital.
The male driver had accelerated towards the officers when they got out of their vehicle to stop the car in the Grenoble suburb of Saint-Martin-d’Heres, the prosecutors said.
He lost control of the car following the exchange of fire and was captured while attempting to flee on foot.
France’s national internal affairs body, the IGPN, is probing the shots fired by the police, while the driver is under investigation for attempted murder of a public official.
More than 10 people have been killed in 2022 alone in France in situations where drivers have refused to halt when ordered by police.