3 dead, 1 injured in shooting in Southern France

At least three people were killed and one was injured in a shooting in Southern France on Sunday evening, local media reported.

The incident occurred near a gas station in the Ollioules commune of the Var department, where an unidentified number of gunmen opened fire and killed "two men who were certainly targeted in the attack," Robert Beneventi, the commune's mayor, told state-run radio France Info.

A tourist couple were also caught in the incident and hit by stray bullets, Beneventi said, adding that the "innocent female victim" died while her husband was seriously wounded and sent to a local hospital.

The police have started an investigation while the gunmen are still on the run.

The motive of the shooting might be "a possible settling of accounts or the desire to win back a drug trafficking network," Beneventi said, calling for tougher security measures to deal with "such thugs."

"All means are being used to identify and arrest the perpetrators of the Ollioules shooting," French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner wrote on his Twitter account.