French police detain 14-year-old over school shooting that injured two

French police have detained a 14-year-old student suspected of shooting a school principal and a teacher at a middle school in southern France, leaving both injured in an incident that has raised fresh concerns about school safety.

The shooting occurred on Monday, October 12, at Joseph Lakanal middle school in Aubagne, east of Marseille, according to prosecutors cited by the Associated Press.

The suspect allegedly carried a shotgun concealed inside a guitar case before opening fire inside the school. The principal and a teacher sustained pellet wounds to their legs and were taken to hospital. Their injuries were not considered life-threatening.

Marseille prosecutor Nicolas Bessone said the student fired one or two shots on the first floor, striking the two members of staff.

The teenager subsequently went to the second floor, where he fired twice more. One shot hit the floor in front of a teacher, while another struck a classroom teaching board. No additional injuries were reported from those shots, although pupils in the classroom were left deeply shaken.

The student was eventually intercepted by a staff member in a stairwell and disarmed before police took him into custody.

Deputy prosecutor Audrey Jouaneton praised the staff member’s courage in intervening to stop the incident.

Authorities had not established the teenager’s motive as of Monday. Prosecutors also cautioned against concluding that the principal and teacher had been deliberately targeted.

“We still don’t have sufficiently precise evidence to say that he wanted to target the teaching staff – this principal and the teacher – but they were in any case hit by the shots,” Jouaneton said.

French Education Minister Édouard Geffray condemned the shooting, describing it as an unacceptable act of violence and calling for a collective response.

Mental health counselling was offered to pupils affected by the incident.

The shooting occurred against a backdrop of protests by French secondary school pupils demanding better-resourced educational institutions. However, police said there was no immediate evidence linking the incident to the demonstrations, and the school itself had not been affected by the protests that day.

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Although shootings involving pupils remain uncommon in France, the country has experienced other serious incidents involving weapons in educational settings.

In 2017, a 16-year-old armed with a rifle, pistols and a grenade opened fire at a high school in southern France, injuring three students and the principal. Other incidents have involved students using knives against classmates and school employees.

The latest shooting is likely to renew attention on how schools identify potential threats, respond to violence and provide support to affected pupils and staff.

Investigators are expected to establish the circumstances surrounding the shooting, including how the teenager obtained the weapon and what led to the incident.

As the investigation continues, authorities have not publicly established a motive. The two injured staff members were reported to have sustained non-life-threatening injuries, while counselling was made available to pupils who witnessed the incident.

(apnews)