PARIS (MCT) — A shooter who has killed seven people in France — including three children at a Jewish school — could be charged with terrorism, a federal prosecutor said Tuesday, amid reports that the gunman still on the loose may have filmed his most recent attack.
“It indeed appears that the circumstances of these three killings have caused a serious breach of the peace through intimidation or terror and can be characterized as acts of terrorism in the sense of the definition contained in our penal code,” Francois Molins said.
He pointed to the premeditated and systematic nature of the attacks — all the victims were shot point-blank “in the area of the head,” Molins told reporters. The incidents may also have racist and anti-Semitic aspects, he said.
All the victims belonged to ethnic or religious minorities.
Speculation has been rife in the media that the attacker is a neo-Nazi with a military background. But Interior Minister Claude Gueant warned against excessive guesswork.
“We still don’t know who he is. We haven’t gotten that far,” he said of the suspect.
Molins said all leads were being explored, noting that thousands of hours of video surveillance footage still have to be reviewed.
“It is clear that we are dealing with an individual who is extremely determined, who knows that he is hunted, who is capable of striking again,” he told reporters in Paris.
President Nicolas Sarkozy has placed the southwestern region on the highest threat level of scarlet, denoting the risk of an imminent attack.
