Aubagne: A 14-year-old pupil fires a gun at the headmaster and a teacher
A 14-year-old pupil opened fire at Joseph-Lakanal secondary school on Monday morning with a shotgun hidden in a guitar case, injuring the headmaster and a teacher.
Gun attack at a secondary school in Bouches-du-Rhône
A 14-year-old teenager in year 9 opened fire on two members of the educational staff on Monday morning at Joseph-Lakanal secondary school in Aubagne. According to TF1 Info, the young man had entered the establishment with a shotgun hidden in a guitar case. He opened fire on the headmaster and a teacher, striking one in the legs and the other on the buttocks. Both victims were evacuated to hospital with minor injuries.
"He opened fire on both the headmaster of the school and a teacher, who were evacuated to hospital and who are slightly injured," said Jacques Witkowski, prefect of Bouches-du-Rhône. The pupil was quickly overpowered by a CPE (counsellor and educational coordinator) before being handed over to the authorities. He is currently being questioned at Aubagne police station.
The shooter has no criminal record. During questioning in custody, he stated that he was a victim of bullying at the school. According to parents interviewed by TF1 Info, the teenager had violent behaviour, including attempted strangulation of his classmates. "He played a lot of video games, he was isolated, not very well-liked," a mother reported.
At noon, parents were gathering outside the establishment to collect their children, who were being evacuated class by class. The anxiety was palpable: "I dropped everything, there was no question about it," one father said. "There is some stress, quite a lot of stress that suddenly built up, very quickly in fact."
The pupils who witnessed the attack are deeply shocked. "It's traumatising because it's the first time something like this has happened to me during my schooling. It was always drills when the alarm went off, and now, this is the first time something like this that I've seen with my own eyes, so yes, it's very traumatising, it shocked me," a secondary school pupil testified.
The Minister of Education, Édouard Geffray, condemned "an inadmissible act" that bears witness to the "development of unbridled violence in our society". He visited Aubagne in the early afternoon accompanied by the Minister of the Interior.
Source: TF1 Info