* Print Marseille battles image as France's murder capital By Tom Esslemont BBC News, Marseille Pictures on a school wall in Marseille, France Schools in the deprived north of the city have reduced the drop-out rate Continue reading the main story -- * France country profile France's second city, Marseille, has become synonymous with drug-related violence in recent years but local politicians are fighting to change that image. Between the grey high rises of the northern districts, trains pass every few minutes. -- Murder spike According to police figures, a third of all the murders in France in 2012 took place in the Marseille region. Blocks of flats in Marseille Much of the violence occurs in the poor northern suburbs Children in a built-up area of Marseille Parents say young children are vulnerable to the drug gangs A view of the Tour St Jean in Marseille The city fathers want to project a new image of Marseille as a city of culture Victims are usually in their late teens and twenties. Many of them are thought to have been caught up in organised crime. -- In spite of a recent spike in the murder rate - there were at least 24 in 2012 and 20 in 2011 - the level of criminality is not as high as it once was. In the early 1960s, as the war for Algeria's independence ended, hundreds of thousands of French people returned from former colonies in North Africa. Many settled in Marseille where new high-rises were built to accommodate them. In the ensuing years the city gained a reputation for its vibrant multiculturalism, as well as for its link in the "French Connection", through which gangs trafficked heroin from Turkey to Europe and on to the United States. 'Ghetto feeling' "The city's geography has a lot to do with its problems," says sociologist Laurent Mucchielli at the University of Aix-Marseille, referring not only to the seaside location, but to social segregation between a poorer north and a richer south. "The poorer classes traditionally live in the northern districts… meaning that social barriers have been constructed between north and south." -- "We try to make the children aware of their surroundings and make sure they have access to a cultural education." In the run-up to mayoral elections in Marseille next year, opposition parties have taken on the centre-right municipality on issues of social deprivation. Senator and Socialist mayoral candidate Samia Ghali is campaigning for more extra-curricular activities for children in school to help them avoid falling in with the street gangs. -- The far-right National Front (FN) has also seized on the problem and is campaigning hard. Its leader, Marine Le Pen, described the crime wave as gangrenous, telling a party conference last month that it was "the shape of things to come". Were the anti-immigrant FN to capitalise on the problem in a multi-ethnic city like Marseille it would worry the governing left and the centre-right UMP, which controls the city mayoralty. Jobs drive -- My political vision is for everyone to live together as a community” End Quote Jean-Claude Gaudin Mayor of Marseille But the city's UMP mayor, Jean-Claude Gaudin, denies his municipality has failed in its efforts: "When I took over as mayor in 1995, unemployment in this city was 21.6%. -- "Today it is at 13%. I have not stopped lowering the rate. My political vision is for everyone to live together as a community." Outside his grand office by the port, new museums and galleries have opened up - all part of Marseille's year as the European Capital of Culture. It is all a far cry from the north of the city where all the talk is of a lack of investment and unemployment and where, in the stairwell of Baya Seddik's apartment, there is a pungent smell of urine and cannabis. -- Ms Seddik now campaigns for opportunities for young people in her district. From her apartment, where pictures of Nabil hang on the wall, you can just make out the sound of the trains heading to and from the beating heart of Marseille. More on This Story