French teen school shooter tackled by ‘hero’ teacher
GRASSE, France: A disturbed teenager with guns and grenades opened fire in a school in southern France on Thursday, slightly wounding four people, officials said, rattling nerves in a country scarred by jihadist attacks.
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.
They said he is obsessed with guns and had relationship problems, and the incident was not apparently terror-related. The name of the suspect, a minor, has not been disclosed.
Education Minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem said ‘heroic’ actions by the school’s head teacher appeared to have helped prevent greater bloodshed.
The head teacher rushed towards the pupil as he pulled out his guns “to try to reason with him,” Vallaud-Belkacem said, adding that the educator was injured in the process. “We avoided the worst,” she said.
Three pupils and the head teacher suffered minor gunshot injuries, and another 10 students were treated for shock or injuries sustained during a stampede, according to an updated toll. One person remained in hospital late Thursday.
The assailant’s age was initially given by investigators as 17, but they later amended it to 16.
Local prosecutor Fabien ne Atzori ruled out a terror motive and said the shooting appeared to have been motivated by the gunman’s “bad relationships” with classmates.
The teenager was described by Vallaud-Belkacem as “unstable and fascinated by guns” and was carrying a rifle, two handguns and grenades — which may have been dummy devices — when he was detained by police shortly after the lunchtime attack.
Investigators also found a homemade explosive device in his rucksack, which was made safe on the spot.