Eight wounded in shooting near French mosque

Eight people were wounded in a shooting in front of a mosque in the southern French city of Avignon in an incident police consider to be a settling of scores rather than a militant attack, regional newspaper La Provence reported on Monday.

Reuters was unable to immediately confirm the report, which cited a judicial source as saying police are "not at all treating it as terrorist related" and suspected instead a dispute between youths.

The newspaper also cited witnesses as saying that one of two gunmen with their faces covered had fired shots around at 10:30 p.m. as people were coming out of the mosque before the two fled the site.

The incident comes after a man was arrested on Thursday after trying to drive a car into a crowd in front of a mosque in the Paris suburb of Creteil in an incident in which no one was injured.

France is on high security alert following a series of militant attacks in recent years.