The President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of South Corsica Jacques Nacer was shot dead just before 7pm in central Ajaccio on Wednesday. Nacer becomes the 17th person to be assassinated in Corsica since the start of the year.

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A senior Corsican business leader was gunned down in the middle of the street on Wednesday as violence continues to blight the French Island.

President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of South Corsica, Jacques Nacer was shot dead by a masked gunman just before 7pm in the clothes shop he owns in central Ajaccio, according to police sources.

Nacer, who sources say was shot several times, becomes the 17th victim of the deadly violence that continues to leave an ugly stain on island, known as the Isle of Beauty.

Reacting to the killing French President François Hollande said authorities needed to find out "the root causes" of the deadly violence.

"We have to use the forces of justice, to shed light on this murder and look for the culprits. Measures, which the government decided on weeks ago, are being implemented," the head of state said on a visit to the Pasteur Institute in Paris.

The assassination of yet another prominent figure comes just weeks after the slaying of top lawyer Antoine Sollarco

Sollacaro, an advocate with links to Corsica's intertwined worlds of armed nationalism and mafia-style criminal clans, was killed in a professional "hit" on his way to work.

His death, which was linked to rivalries between criminal gangs, prompted the French government to take action to try and bring an end the bloodshed.

Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault described the island's accelerating descent into lawlessness as "intolerable" and said the government had decided to issue new instructions to authorities there on tackling crime.

"The government is determined to act against the plague of organised crime in Corsica," Ayrault said in the wake of the lawyer’s murder.

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