Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

CRIME

Teens charged over southern France school shooting

A 16-year-old boy who opened fire at his school in southern France, slightly wounding four fellow pupils and a teacher, was on Saturday charged over the attack, along with an alleged accomplice.

Published: 19 March 2017 07:29 CET
Teens charged over southern France school shooting
Security police at the Tocqueville high school. Photo: Valery Hache/AFP

The heavily armed teen appears to have been motivated to launch Thursday's assault by “bad relationships” with his classmates and aimed to kill up to 14 of them, authorities said.

The shooter, who has not been named because he is a minor, was charged with attempted homicide, and an accomplice was charged with helping him. Both are behind bars.

Investigators said the boy, a student at the Alexis de Tocqueville high school in the hillside town of Grasse, was carrying a small arsenal of weapons as well as a homemade explosive device in a bag.

READ MORE: What we know about the 'troubled' teenager behind the France school shooting

Authorities have not detailed their evidence against the 17-year-old alleged accomplice, and he refused to speak to investigators.

However, his parents recently reported him to authorities for writing a letter to an American prisoner in the state of Ohio who is serving a sentence for committing three murders at a high school.

The head teacher and four pupils wounded in the attack were not the intended targets of the shooter, said local prosecutor Fabienne Atzori.

CRIME

Two girls wounded in knife attack outside French school

An assailant on Thursday wounded two girls aged 6 and 11 in a knife attack close to their school in the east of France and was later arrested, officials said.

Published: 18 April 2024 16:33 CEST
Two girls wounded in knife attack outside French school

The 11-year-old was stabbed outside the school in the town of Souffelweyersheim, on the outskirts of Strasbourg, while the six-year-old was attacked by the same man nearby.

Both received superficial wounds, police said, adding the attacker did not appear to have any known links to radicals and was not previously known to the security services.

Both received superficial wounds, police said, adding the attacker did not appear to have any known links to radicals and was not previously known to the security services.

Both girls are being treated in a paediatric hospital. Parents were later in the afternoon allowed to pick up their children, who had been confined to the school in the immediate aftermath of the attack.

The attacker, born in 1995, was arrested in the area where he attacked the second girl, the police said. He no longer had the knife in his hand and did not resist arrest, it added.

The attack came as Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced a series of measures aimed at cracking down on violence committed by schoolchildren against their peers. There was no indication so far that the attacker had a link with the school.

“I’m really scared. We’ve been reassured that the children are safe inside, but we don’t know when we’ll be able to get them back,” Sarah, a mother of an eight-year-old pupil, told AFP before the green light was given to collect the children.

“A friend called me. She saw the commotion in front of the school as she passed by. Her reflex was to call me so that I could pick up my son.”

SHOW COMMENTS