A pupil has been arrested after a principal and teacher were shot at a school in southern France on Monday morning. The 14-year-old entered Lakanal middle school in Aubagne “with a shotgun inside a guitar case”, regional officials told French media. He then opened fire before being restrained by a member of staff. No children were harmed and the teachers were treated for injuries which are not life-threatening, according to Aubagne Mayor Jean-Pierre Squillari.
The Marseille prosecutor’s office said it had opened an investigation for attempted murder. Local media reported that the incident was not thought to be related to ongoing protests over school conditions, citing police sources. It was reported in French media that the suspect’s father was also taken into custody after weapons were found during a search of the family home. French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez later confirmed that both parents had been taken into custody.
The pupil entered the school in Aubagne – a small city 11 miles east of Marseille – with a gun before several shots were heard, Bouches-du-Rhône departmental council president Martine Vassal told reporters. The head teacher, 53, was reportedly shot in the leg and lower back, while the 37-year-old teacher’s thigh was hit. A third person is said to have sustained minor injuries. Marseille prosecutor Nicolas Bessone said the 14-year-old injured the head and the other teacher on the first floor.
He then went to the second floor and fired twice, “first in front of a teacher towards the floor, and a second time inside an occupied classroom, hitting the chalkboard”, Bessone said. “Neither [that] teacher nor the students were injured, though they were severely shaken.” The boy was restrained by a member of staff in a school corridor, according to the city hall, and taken into police custody. “All students were immediately confined and made safe within seconds,” Squillari, speaking in his role as city mayor, said in an update on social media. A psychological support unit was set up on site to provide emergency support.
Squillari also spoke to reporters and said: “The kids saw practically nothing since it happened in the hallway. “Psychologically, quite a few were affected, and those in a distressed state are being examined by the psychologist”. He said the suspect was a child “just like any other”. “The father had requested a meeting with the school’s educational advisor, but we don’t know any more than that,” he told BFMTV.
Two pupils told BFMTV a fire alarm sounded and when they went outside to take the stairs they were told not to go down, but they then came face-to-face with the alleged shooter. One of them explained: “He was a metre away, with his hunting rifle. He fired at the ground.” “We started to run away, but he followed us for a while. We started screaming.” The school will be closed to pupils on Tuesday, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez told reporters as he visited the scene with Education Minister Édouard Geffray.
French President Emmanuel Macron extended his “full solidarity and total support” to the teachers, students and parents in shock. “I salute the composure and exemplary response of the educational team, which made it possible to avoid the worst,” he wrote on social media. Geffray wrote on social media: “This unacceptable act is yet further evidence of the rise of unchecked violence in our society, against which we must all take a stand.”
