France's national counter-terrorism prosecutor's office announced on Tuesday that it was taking over the investigation into an attack by a student who opened fire with a shotgun on his school principal and a teacher, causing them minor injuries.
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A 14-year-old boy opened fire with a hunting gun at a middle school in France on Monday, wounding the headmaster and a teacher before being disarmed by a member of staff, local authorities said.
The shooting took place at Joseph-Lakanal middle school in the southern town of Aubagne, near Marseille, where a third person was grazed by gunfire, police said.
Authorities said there did not appear to be a link with high school protests that have rocked France in recent weeks.
"The middle school was not affected by the high school students' protest," police told French news agency AFP.
The Marseille public prosecutor's office, which had opened an investigation on Monday into "attempted murder," on Tuesday transferred the case to the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office (PNAT).
This came after initial investigations revealed the suspect's "probable adherence to the 'True Crime Community' (TCC) movement" and indicated that the criminal act committed at his school was "rooted in this ideology," the anti-terrorism prosecutor's office stated in a press release.
An investigation has now been opened on charges of "attempted murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise," "conspiracy to commit terrorist crimes against persons," and "weapons offenses in connection with a terrorist enterprise."
The 14-year-old's interest in TCC came to light during the analysis of his digital devices.
According to the PNAT, the TCC movement is "an ecosystem of online communities that glorifies perpetrators of mass killings and, in some instances, incites the use of extreme violence."
Gun hidden in guitar case
Marseille's deputy public prosecutor Audrey Jouaneton said the suspect "came in carrying a bag which was a guitar case. He clearly removed a weapon from this guitar case – a long gun."
He fired at least four shots, including inside a classroom occupied by teachers and pupils, leaving a mark on a blackboard, she added.
The headmaster and teacher were not in critical condition, according to authorities.
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"The suspect, for reasons as yet unknown, fired at the headteacher, who was hit by a shower of pellets in the thighs and lower back," said Jacques Witkowski, prefect of the wider Bouches-du-Rhone region.
He then fired at a second teacher, who was hit by buckshot in the thigh before a member of staff disarmed him, he said.
The suspect "is not known for any history of delinquency or radicalisation," Witkowski added.
Sarah, a pupil at the school, told AFP she heard the fire alarm go off during her Spanish lesson and went into the corridor, where she and her classmates "bumped into" the gunman.
"He started shooting and said: 'I've only come for the teachers, not for the pupils,'" she said.
Intention to kill
French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez, who visited the scene, said the suspect's parents had been taken into custody.
Investigators were "trying to understand how this young person ended up in a position with this gun", Nunez told reporters.
French President Emmanuel Macron on X praised the teaching staff for their quick reaction.
"I commend the composure and exemplary response of the teaching staff, which helped to prevent the worst from happening," he said.
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Education Minister Edouard Geffray, stated on France Inter radio on Tuesday morning that the young man "clearly had the intention to kill.
"What is striking is the premeditated nature of the act. (...) We are dealing with a young man who planned his journey. He had time to reload his gun several times," he added.
Geffray, who also visited the boy's school on Monday called for action against such violence.
"All this seems to sit within a global social phenomenon," he said. "We have to provide a societal response... Schools can't do everything, schools cannot treat major violence."
(with AFP)