France school shooting: Police detain pupil after two injured

Officials say a staff member disarmed the suspect, who hid a hunting shotgun in a guitar case, before police arrived.

Police have detained a 14-year-old student suspected of shooting and wounding his middle school principal and teacher with a hunting rifle he hid in his guitar case, according to local officials.

Children ran for cover at Joseph Lakanal Middle School in Aubagne on Monday after the suspect fired multiple shots. The student fired once or twice on the first floor of the school, injuring the principal and teacher in the legs before he continued to the second floor and opened fire again, twice, Marseille Public Prosecutor Nicolas Bessone said in a statement.

A staff member disarmed the teen before police arrived and took him into custody, Mayor Jean-Pierre Squillari told reporters.

A third person was grazed in the shooting in the southern town near Marseille, while the headmaster and teacher were not in critical condition after being hit with ammunition used in 12-gauge shotguns, police said.

One student told Reuters that her maths teacher had played down the bang of the first gunshot blast as noise from nearby construction. A subsequent blast was followed by an alarm and classes emptied into the corridors.

“We were panicking; we ran,” the student said. “There were two ways out: one passage to the sports hall and one passage to go outside. Survival instinct took over, and I ran towards the outside.”

France’s Education Minister Edouard Geffray took to X to comment on the event and wrote, “This unacceptable act is yet further evidence of the rise of unchecked violence in our society, against which we must all take a stand.”

Gun violence perpetrated by pupils in schools is rare in France. In 2017, a 16-year-old student armed with a rifle, pistols and a small grenade opened fire at a high school in southern France, and wounded three students and the principal.

The prime minister’s office said the interior and education ministers were heading to the scene.

There was no immediate information to suggest that the shooting was in any way connected to protests by high school pupils demanding better-resourced schools that have been shaking France for several weeks.