Retailleau said he would travel later to the northwestern city of Rennes, where a five-year-old boy was shot in the head in another drug-related incident last week, according to local media.

In his interview, Retailleau condemned what he called the “Mexicanization” of France.

“These shootings are not happening in South America, they are happening in Rennes, Poitiers, in this west of France that was once famous for its tranquility. “We are at a turning point,” he said.

In recent years, France has battled a rise in drug-related crime in Marseille, the historic center of the country’s illicit narcotics trade, and in small and medium-sized cities across the country.