In Photos: French Jewish Community Shaken By Tragedy

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shooting-in-france-6[Photos below.] A French police official says the gun used to kill four people at a Jewish school today was the same gun used in attacks on three French paratroopers last week.

Police had been investigating a connection between the attacks after a gunman opened fire outside Ozar Hatorah school in the southwestern French city of Toulouse, killing a rabbi, his two sons and one other child, according to the prosecutor’s office.

“The drama occurred a bit before 8 a.m. A man arrived in front of the school on a motorcycle or scooter,” Valet said, adding that the man got off his scooter outside the school and opened fire.

“He shot at everything he had in front of him, children and adults,” he said. “The children were chased inside the school.”

Officials say the shooter fled the scene on a scooter.

A police official said the same powerful 11.43-caliber handgun used in Monday’s attack on a school in Toulouse was used in an attack four days ago that killed two paratroopers in nearby Montauban, and in an attack that killed a paratrooper eight days ago in Toulouse. The dead and injured were all of North African and Caribbean origin.

All three times, the attacker came on a motorcycle, apparently alone, and then sped away.

In Monday’s attack, the killer also used a 9-caliber gun, the police official said. At least 15 shots were fired at the school in a residential neighborhood in northeastern Toulouse, the official said. The official, based in Paris, was not authorized to speak publicly and asked that he not be identified by name.

The motive for the killings is unclear.

The Paris prosecutor’s office said Monday it will investigate eventual terrorist links to Monday’s killing and the two killings of paratroopers last week. The prosecutor’s office, in a statement, did not indicate any evidence so far of any form of terrorism.

France’s Prime Minister Francois Fillon says he has asked for all schools and religious buildings to be secured in the wake of Monday’s school shooting.

Sarkozy visited the school accompanied by Richard Prasquier, the president of CRIF, the umbrella group representing Jewish organizations.

“It’s a day of national tragedy,” Sarkozy said. “The barbary, the savagery, the cruelty cannot win. Hate cannot win. The nation is much stronger.”

See below for photos:

{Fox News/Photos courtesy of CNN, Fox, AFP, EPA and Reuters}


2 COMMENTS

  1. Prayers for the deceased and injured from this evil attack. The perpetrator must be found and apprehended as soon as possible. The three French soldiers murdered in the last two weeks in and around Toulouse were of North African origin, perhaps Muslim themselves, so this latest killing spree may have been done by a person or persons of the extreme nationalist bent. Of course before making suppositions one should get more facts. No one should be making political capital from the attack. This attack does not imply that Jews are less safe now in France than they were before. For example, anyone trying to also imply that making aliyah from France will guarantee one’s safety is being disengenuous. There is tea leave reading and supposition and then there is taking a balanced and measured perspective. I’m sure the French authorities are doing all they can to find the killer.

  2. I was appalled at hearing this terrible news. It is totally tragic and senseless. Personally anyone who kills a child deserves no mercy. Are things like this a warning from Hashem ? I somehow think so and we need to heed things like this. I pray this is the end of tragic events like this and that those responsible will be caught and quickly prosecuted.

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