AUBAGNE: A 14-year-old boy opened fire with a hunting gun at a middle school in France on Monday, wounding the headmaster and a teacher before being disarmed by a member of staff, local authorities said.
The shooting took place at Joseph-Lakanal middle school in the southern town of Aubagne, near Marseille, where a third person was grazed by gunfire, police said. Authorities said there did not appear to be a link with high school protests that have rocked France in recent weeks. “The middle school was not affected by the high school students’ protest,” police said. The suspect “came in carrying a bag which was a guitar case. He clearly removed a weapon from this guitar case — a long gun,” said Marseille’s deputy public prosecutor Audrey Jouaneton. He fired at least four shots, including inside a classroom occupied by teachers and pupils, leaving a mark on a blackboard, she added. The headmaster, 53, and teacher, 37, were not in critical condition, according to authorities.
“The suspect, for reasons as yet unknown, fired at the headteacher, who was hit by a shower of pellets in the thighs and lower back,” said Jacques Witkowski, prefect of the wider Bouches-du-Rhone region.
Published in Dawn, October 13th, 2026
