Grenade thrown into French bar injures 12

Twelve people were wounded when a grenade exploded in a bar in France's southeastern city of Grenoble, officials said.

Prosecutors said investigators had not yet identified a motive but did not believe it was a terrorist attack.

"Someone came in and threw a grenade, apparently without saying a word, and ran away," prosecutors said.

Two people were in critical condition yesterday after Wednesday's attack, prosecutors said, adding that "many clients" were present when the grenade exploded shortly after 8pm at the bar in the Olympic Village neighborhood, built when the picturesque city hosted the 1968 Winter Olympics.

Investigators are looking at a possible connection to drug trafficking, prosecutors said, adding that some accounts indicated the suspect may have also been carrying a Kalashnikov assault rifle, which did not appear to have been fired.

Gang-related killings have become increasingly frequent in Grenoble and its suburbs.

Police were yesterday searching for an unidentified man who hurled the grenade into the Aksehir bar, situated in a rough neighborhood of the city.

"I heard a loud bang," said a witness in her 70s.

"And I said to myself that it wasn't a firecracker. I assumed it was a neighborhood problem."

Another neighbor, dressed in a nightgown, said: "We're all shocked."

She said she had lived in the area for 30 years and it was "getting worse and worse."

Agence France-Presse