Chaos erupted at a secondary school near Marseille after a 14-year-old pupil opened fire with a hunting rifle, injuring the headteacher and a female staff member as terrified children fled for safety, according to the local mayor and a student.
A supervisor at Joseph Lakanal college managed to disarm the boy before police arrived, Aubagne mayor Jean-Pierre Squillari told reporters.
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The two victims were taken to hospital with injuries that were not considered life-threatening, he said.
Authorities found no immediate evidence connecting the shooting to a three-week wave of protests, some of them violent, that has swept through high schools across France. French President Emmanuel Macron has condemned the unrest.
Police later detained the pupil.
“It’s a kid who goes to that school. He entered with a rifle; the investigation will determine how, and fired twice in a corridor toward the principal and a teacher,” Mr Squillari said.
Emergency vehicles parked in front of Joseph-Lakanal college
‘We were panicking, we ran’
A student said her maths teacher initially dismissed the sound of the first gunshot as noise from construction work taking place nearby.
After a second blast rang out, an alarm sounded and students poured 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.”
Marine Le Pen, the far-right leader and frontrunner to succeed Mr Macron next spring, accused the government of losing control of security in schools.
“Schools, which should be sanctuaries, are now places where people risk their lives. Insecurity has entered the school. Many pupils and teachers go there with a knot in their stomach.”
Mr Macron’s education and interior ministers were expected to visit the college later in the day.
Eddy Sid, a spokesperson for the SGP-FO police union, told BFMTV that there appeared to be no connection between the shooting and high-school demonstrations over staff shortages and inadequate school funding.
There had been no blockades at Joseph Lakanal college, he added.
