Monday, 19 March 2012

Lone gunman kills Jews and Africans in France


Police and investigators collect evidence at the school in Touslous, France
PARIS - A teacher was gunned down along with his two children at a Jewish school in southern France Monday. During the attack, the director of the Ozar Hatorah school in Toulouse saw his daughter shot and killed in front of him. French President Nicolas Sarkozy has called the shootings a national tragedy.

The gunman pulled up in front of the Jewish school just before 8 a.m. and started shooting, authorities said. The dead included a 3-year-old child, and a 17-year-old was wounded, according to local prosecutor Michael Valet.


It is the third time in the past 10 days that a gunman on a motorcycle has fired on minorities in the southwest of France. Black French soldiers of north African origin were shot and killed on March 11 and March 15.

One of the guns used Monday was also used in the earlier killings, said Elisabeth Allannic, a spokeswoman for judicial authorities in Paris. A court in Paris Monday opened an investigation into all three killings, under anti-terrorism powers.

The gunman wore a motorcycle helmet and fled on a motor scooter after the shootings, Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said - the same method used in the earlier soldiers' shootings.

The gunman got close enough to his victims to shoot them in the head, local residents said.
Families hugged and wept in front of police cars around the school in the aftermath of the shooting, pictures from the scene showed.

Ambulances and police vans lined the narrow streets of the city, and a helicopter circled overhead as police on foot made their way through the small crowd of shocked locals to get to the building.

French leader, President Sarkozy flew to the school, where he declared that "everything must be done so the killer is arrested." The Interior Ministry has ordered police across the country to contact Jewish organizations to arrange increased vigilance.

France, which has one of the largest Jewish populations in Europe, had 389 reported acts of anti-Semitism in 2011, according to Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France, known by the French acronym CRIF.

Toulouse police Capt. David Delattre said that in the March 11 incident, a soldier was on his motorbike when a helmeted man on another motorcycle shot and killed him. The soldier was not in uniform, and his motorbike did not have any military identification, Delattre said.


Security tightened
Monday's shooting brought immediate reaction from the Jewish world.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a "savage crime" and said anti-Semitism could not be ruled out as a motive.

Jewish communities around the world are stepping up security in response to the shootings, the Jewish Federations of North America said.
In the United States, National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said officials were "deeply saddened" at news of the "horrific" attack. In New York, police increased security coverage at Jewish neighbourhoods and institutions, Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne said.

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