A man on a motorbike has opened fire outside a Jewish school in France, killing three people, a Toulouse prosecutor has said.
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The entrance of Ozar Hatorah College in Jolimont, northeast of Toulouse Photo: Google Streetview
Two more people have been seriously wounded in the attack in Toulouse, prosecutor Michel Valet has said. Witnesses said a teacher and his two children were among the casualties.
The attack occurred as students were arriving for morning classes at the Ozar Hatorah school. The city is now said to be in lockdown as police hunt the gunman.
The shooting comes just days after two other incidents in which soldiers were gunned down by a man on a motorbike in the same region.
Interior Minister Claude Gueant has ordered security to be tightened around all French Jewish schools after the attack.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has expressed his horror at the attack, and said he is travelling immediately to the school.
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French President Nicolas Sarkozy is to travel to the school today
Mr Sarkozy said in a statement he would be accompanied by his education minister and the head of the CRIF, the umbrella representative group of Jewish organisations in France.
Patrick Rouimi, the father of a child at the school, told AFP that a man opened fire on a group of people standing at a spot where children were picked up for the school.
The shooting occurred at about 8.10am, just ahead of the start of classes in most French schools.
The gunman, wearing a helmet, fled the scene on a black scooter, witnesses told BFM. A correspondent for the news channel said people in the area were in "immense shock".
Freelance journliast Christopher Bockman told the BBC that Toulouse was in lockdown as police hunted the gunman.
Mr Gueant was due to arrive in the southwestern city later in the morning, officials said. France has Europe's largest Jewish community, estimated at up to 700,000 people.
The Israeli foreign ministry has stated it is "horrified" at the news of the attack. "We are horrified by this attack and we trust the French authorities to shed full light on this tragedy and bring the perpetrators of these murders to justice," Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told AFP.
France's Grand Rabbi Gilles Bernheim has also expressed shock at the attack. "I am horrifed by what happened this morning in Toulouse in front of the Jewish school," he told AFP, adding that he would leave immediately for the southwestern French city.
Montauban, where three French soldiers were gunned down by a man on a motorbike last week
Police in the area launched a major manhunt last week after the killing of three paratroopers and the wounding of another in two separate, but connected incidents.
The perpetrator of both attacks fled on a motorbike. Police forensics experts said Friday the same pistol was used in both attacks.
Witnesses described how the killer had time to turn over one of the wounded men who was trying to crawl away and fire three more shots into him before getting back on his scooter and making his escape.
Between 50 and 60 police officers, including anti-terrorist specialists, have been drafted in to the investigation.
Senior military officials have ordered troops based in the region not to wear their uniforms outside barracks.
Mr Bockman told the BBC that the soldiers who were targeted were of ethnic origin. He said it appeared the gunman was deliberately targeting ethnic minorities in the area.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/9152469/France-school-shooting-Three-dead-at-Jewish-school-in-Toulouse.html
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