Shots fired at mosque

TWO hooded gunmen have opened fire on a crowd outside a mosque in France, injuring several and sparking a major police operation.

Authorities placed the scene, in the city of Avignon in the country’s south, in lockdown and launched a manhunt for the attackers, who fled.

Witnesses say the men, wearing hoods, arrived at Arrahma mosque in a Renault Clio around 10.30pm local time (6.30am AEST), leapt out and began firing at random.

One was armed with a handgun and the other with a rifle, local newspaper La Provence reports.

According to La Provence, police have dismissed the possibility it was a terrorist attack. It quoted a magistrate as saying the likely motive was “a settling of accounts or a quarrel between young people”.