Corsican former mayor shot dead in street

A former mayor and member of President Nicolas Sarkozy's party was shot in the middle of the street in a Corsican village on Thursday. She died of her wounds at the scene.

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Marie-Jeanne Bozzi was shot in the streets of her old constituency, Porticcio, south of the island's main city, Ajaccio.

According to initial findings, Bozzi died of several gunshot wounds to the back.

“She was taking a car journey she made daily, and parked up at a shopping centre around around 15h45,” a police source said. “It was at that moment that the killers struck”.

According to witnesses the ex-mayor was the target of around eight live rounds as she got out of her vehicle.

Two hooded men fled the scene seconds later on a motorbike.

“The way the assault was carried out and the weapon used suggest that the attack could have been a reprisal. She was perhaps a victim of her past connections”, the police source said.

Bozzi's brother Ange-Marie Michelosi is a Corsican crime figure and in 2002 she was convicted of living off immoral earnings. Seven years later she was also investigated on suspicion of plotting a crime.