Grenade explosion at French bar leaves 12 injured, suspect at large

A grenade thrown into a bar in southeastern France has injured 12 people, half of whom are in serious condition, according to officials. The suspect remains at large.

On Wednesday, shortly after 8 p.m., an individual detonated a grenade inside a community café in a working-class district of Grenoble, said Catherine Séguin, representative of the Department of Isère.

Twelve people were injured in the explosion, according to Séguin, six of whom are currently in critical condition.

“A person came in, threw a grenade, didn’t say a word, it seems, and then fled,” prosecutor François Touret de Coucy told reporters, according to France24, adding that “no hypothesis is being favoured at this stage.”

A manhunt has been launched to locate the suspect. The prosecutor stated that the suspect was also armed with a Kalashnikov rifle, though it is unclear whether it was used. The bar was crowded with customers at the time of the attack.

A connection to drug trafficking is one of the hypotheses being explored, among others, Touret de Coucy said. Gun violence linked to drug trafficking is frequent in the Grenoble area, according to France24.

“I condemn in the strongest terms the criminal act of unprecedented violence that occurred in a business in the Olympic Village district, causing more than 10 injuries, several of them serious,” said Grenoble Mayor Éric Piolle. “I thank the rescue and security forces for their rapid intervention.”