A man on a scooter opened fire outside a Jewish school in Toulouse, France, on March 19, 2012, killing at least 4 people, including 3 children, officials say. A spokesman for France's interior ministry said that security was being tightened at all Jewish schools in the country.
TOULOUSE, France (AP) — A motorbike assailant opened fire with two handguns Monday in front of aJewish school in the French city of Toulouse, killing a rabbi, his two young sons and a girl. One witness described him as a man chasing small children and "looking to kill."
One of the guns he used also had been fired in two other deadly motorbike attacks in the area that targeted paratroopers of North African and French Caribbean origin, officials said. French PresidentNicolas Sarkozy suggested one person was responsible for all the killings.
A massive manhunt was under way and the terrorism alert level was raised to its highest level ever across a swath of southern France surrounding Toulouse. Hundreds of officers increased security at schools, synagogues and mosques around the country, and Sarkozy said 14 riot police units "will secure the region as long as this criminal" hasn't been caught.
Monday's attack revolted France and drew strong condemnation from Israel and the United States. Sarkozy called it the worst school shooting in French history.
France was on the highest level of security of security alert on Monday night and its presidential campaign on hold after a serial killer coldly shot dead three Jewish children and a teacher in the worst attack on a school the country has known.
The "determined, cold and methodical" masked gunman pulled up on a black motorbike at the gates of the Ozar Hatorah Jewish school in a suburb of Toulouse, southwestern France, calmly dismounted and killed a 30-year old Rabbi and his two young sons, aged 3 and 6.
After seriously injuring a 17-year old boy, he chased an eight-year old firing a bullet into her head at point-blank range.
The murder weapon was the same as the one used in two other shootings – one last Thursday in which two soldiers died and a third is in a coma, and another four days earlier in which an off-duty soldier was shot dead. Three of the men were of north African descent and one was of West Indian origin.
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