Two teaching staff have been injured by gunfire at a school in France, according to education minister Edouard Geffray.
The attacker is suspected to be a 14-year-old pupil and has been arrested, according to Le Parisien, citing police sources.
The pupil is reported to have used a 12-gauge shotgun, a hunting rifle, according to the publication.
The incident took place outside the school in Aubagne, near Marseille. The student’s motive is unknown.
A headteacher and a teacher were wounded in their lower bodies by the shooting and have sustained minor injuries.
Mayor of Aubagne, Jean-Pierre Squillari, said that the pupil was a third-year student and was “immediately neutralised and taken into custody by the law enforcement authorities” in a post on Facebook.
He said that “all students are safe and sound”, and that “no child was injured”.
Squillari said that teachers took students into a room away from the shooter as the incident broke out.
“Thanks to the calmness and remarkable reflexes of the teachers and the entire educational team, all students were immediately confined and placed in safety from the very first second,” he said.
The mayor added that the psychological impact of the incident had been “immense” for the teenagers and that an “emergency medical-psychological cell has been activated”.
“The area is under the full control of the authorities,” he added. “There is no longer any danger on site.”
It follows days of students protests and violent clashes with police.
However, Le Parisien says there is “no connection to the high school protests, as this school is not affected by the blockades.”
Police have said that the school was not impacted by the protests on Monday, according to the Associated Press.
Geffray said he would be attending the scene of the incident along with interior minister Laurent Nunez.
“Two staff members from the National Education system, a principal and a teacher, were victims this morning of gunshot wounds at Lakanal middle school in Aubagne,” Geffray wrote in a post on X on Monday.
“A student is said to be the perpetrator. I am heading to the scene immediately with @NunezLaurent and @SabrinaRoubache.
“In the face of this new attack, the National Education system will, as always, remain united and strong, around an educational community sorely tried.
“But this unacceptable act bears witness once again to the spread of unbridled violence in our society, against which we must all mobilise. In words as in deeds.”
The incident comes amid unrest across France as students protest school conditions. They have grown over the last fortnight with at least 260,000 people taking part in multiple cities including Paris, Marseille, Nantes and Lyon.
Half of France’s 3,700 high schools were shut or partially closed as a result of the protests.
Last week, a one year-old toddler in a pram was hit by a firework in an incident near a school in Saint-Cyr-l’École, Paris, the day after a teenager lost a hand picking up a grenade thrown by police.
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