Three men were shot and killed in a car in the city of Marseille, Southern France, where there has been an outbreak of drug-related violence recently, the BBC reports.

According to police, there were five people in the car who had just left the nightclub when they were fired on with Kalashnikov assault rifles.

Two of those targeted, as well as the attackers, fled the scene.

The police link the incident to drug trade. The number of drug-related homicides in Marseille has reached 21 this year, according to the AFP news agency.

Frédérique Camilleri, the regional prefect, told reporters that "the entire police force has been mobilised to find the perpetrators of these despicable crimes and to dismantle the networks of the traffickers behind this violence."