At least three children and one adult were shot dead this morning, and five more people were injured, when a man on a black scooter opened fire near a Jewish school in Toulouse, France, reports the Telegraph. The shooting appears to be connected to two similar shootings in the same area last week, when three French soldiers were killed and two injured by a man on a motorcycle. All those attacks used 11.43-caliber bullets, according to the AP, and a judicial source tells Sky News that the same gun was used.
The gunman opened fire on a spot where children are picked up for school, and the city is on "lockdown" as police hunt for the shooter, who escaped on the scooter. “This is a medieval city with narrow winding roads, where it is easy for a scooter to outrun a police car,” said one observer. Given the background of the soldiers who were attacked, the gunman appears to be targeting ethnic minorities, said a local journalist. French President Nicolas Sarkozy condemned the attack, and the interior minister ordered security be tightened at all French Jewish schools. (More Toulouse stories.)