Jewish schoolchildren shot dead

A father and his two young sons aged six and three were shot dead when a gunman opened fire at a Jewish school in France in an apparently racist attack.

Another child, aged between eight and 10, was also killed outside the Ozar Hatorah college in the south-west city of Toulouse, and a 17-year-old girl left seriously injured.

Police are hunting a “lone wolf” assassin, believed to be linked to two other shootings in the past fortnight that killed three soldiers from black or north African backgrounds.

Witnesses today described how the gunman drove up on a black scooter wearing a black crash helmet as the children gathered at the school gates ahead of the start of classes.

He dismounted and started shooting, hitting the 30-year-old rabbi and his two children. When his first weapon misfired, he produced a second gun and continued firing. “He shot ateverything he had in front of him, children and adults,” prosecutor Michel Valet said. “The children were chased inside the school.”

At least three people were also wounded in the attack, including the 17-year-old daughter of the school’s headmaster, who suffered serious injuries. The school, behind a high white wall with few external markings, was cordoned off by police, who then escorted other children outside. One officer held a distraught girl, her face in her hands. A mother and son were seen walking away from the site, their faces visibly pained. Within an hour, search helicopters could be seen flying over the city hunting for the gunman.

The French interior minister Claude Guéant immediately ordered security to be stepped up at all Jewish schools in France and President Nicolas Sarkozy cancelled his official engagements to fly to the city to visit the school and meet local officials.

He called the shootings “abominable” and a “frightening tragedy”.

The country’s Chief Rabbi, Gilles Bernheim, said news of the attack had left him “shell shocked”. He cancelled his engagements to travel to the school to offer support to teachers and families.

Officials said it was “more than likely” that the attack was racially motivated and could be linked to a spate of shootings of ethnic minorities in Toulouse over the past fortnight.

Three soldiers from African backgrounds were gunned down at a cash machine in Montauban, 29 miles north of Toulouse, on Thursday and a 30-year-old ethnic minority soldier was shot dead by a motorcycle-rider in a residential area.

The same type of 11.43mm calibre automatic firearm was used in both shootings, officers revealed. Spent cartridges found at the scene of today’s school shooting were also reported to include 11.43mm calibre.

Sixty local police officers and an anti-terrorism unit sent from Paris were already working to find the gunmen responsible for the earlier shooting, who has been described as a “lone wolf” assassin with a grudge against ethnic minorities.