Four Killed at Jewish School in France
Image by Getty images
Shock: Investgators collect evidence in front of the Ozar Hatorah school, where four people were killed during a shooting Monday. Image by getty images
Four people were killed and another seriously wounded in a shooting at a Jewish high school in the southern French city of Toulouse, French media reported on Monday.
According to reports, a man riding a motorcycle opened fire on the Ozar Hatorah school at around 8 a.m. when the children were preparing to enter the school.
The gunman then abandoned the motorcycle, entered the school and began shooting at the students and faculty, killing four students and one adult, and seriously wounding another student. The slain adult killed was reported to be a Jewish studies teacher at the school.
French prosecutor Michel Valet said Monday that those killed were a 30-year-old man and his 3-year-old and 6-year-old sons. He said another child, between 8 and 10 years old, was also killed, and a 17-year-old seriously wounded.
French police said that the man opened fire with an automatic pistol of the same kind that was seen at two previous attacks on soldiers in Toulouse and the nearby town of Montauban, the report said. Three soldiers died in those two incidents, and one was seriously wounded.
Police closed off the street on which the school is located, and deployed large forces the scene. Some 50 French police officers were drafted into the investigation including anti-terrorist officers, French media reported.
The Ministry of Interior has requested increased vigilance and surveillance in all of south-west France, particularly in the Jewish districts.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
