Rabbi, three children shot dead outside Jewish school in France

PARIS-An assassin riding a motor scooter opened fire on a knot of children on their way to classes at a Jewish school in the southwest French city of Toulouse Monday morning, killing at least three people and wounding a half-dozen more, authorities announced.

The dead included a teacher at the school and his two children, reports from Toulouse said. They were standing on the sidewalk at a gathering point near the school, called Ozar HaTorah, when an individual on a motor scooter drove up and began shooting with two weapons before speeding away down the street, the reports said. A helmet concealed his face from onlookers.

The style of the assault and the 11.43mm pistol used by the assassin were similar to those used in the killings of three French soldiers in two separate shootings in the last 10 days, French media reported, leading to speculation that a killer with political motivations may have been behind all three deadly attacks.

President Nicolas Sarkozy and his interior minister, Claude Gueant, announced that they would travel to Toulouse immediately to display their concern. Sarkozy will be accompanied by Richard Pasquier, president of the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions, the president?s office said.

?I am horrified by what happened this morning in Toulouse in front of the Jewish school,? France?s chief rabbi, Gilles Bernheim, said in a statement.

Similarly, the Israeli Foreign Ministry expressed its dismay in a statement relayed by news agencies. ?We are horrified by this attack and we are confident the French authorities will shed light on this drama and bring those responsible for these murders to justice,? said a spokesman, Yigal Palmor.

In addition to the three known killed, at least five others were wounded by the gunfire, authorities told reporters, some of them seriously. The area of the shooting,?in the La Roseraie residential neighborhood, was cordoned off by police. A neighboring Jewish cultural center was ordered closed.

Two other fatal shootings in the vicinity of Toulouse in recent days targeted French soldiers.

In the first, a soldier was shot and killed in on March 11 as he met a man who pretended to be interesting in buying the soldier?s motorcycle.

Four days later, two other soldiers were killed and a third was badly injured as they took money from an automatic teller in Montauban, about 30 miles to the north.

Police said the same weapon, probably a Colt .45 semiautomatic pistol of the kind once used by U.S. armed forces, was used in both shootings.

This gave rise to speculation that the killer may be motivated by French participation in the Afghan war. But authorities were careful not to assign any motive, saying they had few facts at their disposal.

Source: http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/click.phdo?i=46200705597724bb3e5427c4e589ce96

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