Attacker Fired On Jews From Same Gun Used To Kill 3 Soldiers Back From Af
Toulouse, France: A motorcycle gunman opened fire on Monday in front of a Jewish school in the French city of Toulouse, killing a rabbi, his two young sons and a schoolgirl, the prosecutor’s office said. It was the third deadly motorcycle shooting in the same area in recent days.
A French police official said the same gun was used to kill four people at the Jewish school and three paratroopers last week. The same stolen scooter was also used in three deadly shooting incidents in eight days in France, a police source said.
French prosecutors were studying possible terrorist links but the motive for the attack remains unclear.
Concerns emerged about a possible serial killer with racist motivations. Foreign minister Alain Juppe said there was as yet no evidence to suggest the soldiers had been killed because of their service in Afghanistan.
Religious minorities and issues of race have emerged as a prominent issue in France’s current presidential campaign. The paratroopers killed and injured were of North African and French Caribbean origin, and the targets on Monday were Jewish.
The attack shocked France and prompted strong emotions and high-level discussions in Israel. Israeli leaders strongly condemned the “despicable murder of Jews”, including an Israeli-French dual citizen. Netanyahu expressed confidence that French president Nicolas Sarkozy and his governmentwould “do everything to find the killer”, and offered France Israeli assistance.
Sarkozy rushed to the school, denouncing “the savagery” of the attack and vowing to track down the killer or killers. “We will find him,” he said. He ordered increased security at Jewish and Muslim buildings around Toulouse, while his PM told officials to “secure” all school and religious buildings.
A 30-year-old rabbi and his 3-year-old and 6-year-old sons were killed on Monday just before classes started at the Ozar Hatorah school in a quiet residential neighborhood. Another child, the 8-year-old daughter of the school principal, was also killed, school officials said. A 17-year-old boy was also seriously wounded
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