PARIS (MCT) — France was in shock Monday after four people, including a father and his two daughters, were gunned down at a Jewish school in the southern city of Toulouse, bringing to seven the number of people killed by a suspected single assailant in the area within a week.
The gunman struck shortly after 8 a.m., as children were arriving at Ozar Hatorah secondary school.
Alighting from his scooter, the attacker, who was wearing a helmet, opened fire on children and parents assembled outside the school. He then entered the packed schoolyard, where he continued firing with a second weapon, before making off on the scooter.
A 30-year-old religion teacher, his two daughters ages 6 and 3, and the daughter of the school principal, whose age was given variously by officials as 8 or 10, were killed instantly. A 17-year-old boy was taken to the hospital in critical condition.
One parent who witnessed the attack said the man was “shooting at point-blank range, not even a meter away (from his victims).”
Panicked teachers locked the other children in classrooms and prayed with them while police, parents and ambulances rushed to the scene.
“We were all very shocked,” a young schoolgirl identified as Alexia told BFM TV, with her mother.
Security has been stepped up around Jewish schools and synagogues across the country.
France’s chief rabbi, Giles Bernheim, said he was “horrified” by the attack, which the president of the Union of Jewish students in France, Jonathan Hayoun, called “clearly anti-Semitic.”
