8 hurt as pupil opens fire at French school

GRASSE (AFP) — French police arrested a heavily armed 17-year-old on Thursday after he opened fire at a school in southern France, rattling nerves in a country on edge after several jihadist attacks, authorities said.

The teen was carrying a rifle, two handguns and two grenades in the attack at the Alexis de Tocqueville high school in the sleepy hillside city of Grasse, police told AFP.

An interior ministry spokesman said eight people, including the principal, were injured. Some were hurt in a stampede triggered by the attack.

The suspect, who has not been named publicly, had shared pictures and videos on social media of infamous US school shootings, including the 1999 Columbine massacre.

The head of the regional government, Christian Estrosi, told AFP that the shooting was “not at all” being seen as a terror attack and that the shooter appeared to have “psychological problems.”

The head teacher was admitted to the local hospital with gunshot wounds to the arm and three pupils were treated for buckshot injuries, the hospital’s director Frederic Limouzy told AFP.

Investigators initially said they were looking for an accomplice, but a police source later said the shooter, who was not previously known to the authorities, appeared to have acted alone.