A 17-year-old armed teenager opened fire at a school in France. Authorities succeeded in arresting the perpetrator, who wounded at least three people.
The student from Tocqueville High School, located in a small southeastern French Town called Grasse, wounded the headmaster and two more, who were not identified. The injuries were only light gunshot wounds. France's Education Minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem said the teen did a crazy act and described the teen as a young man fascinated by firearms.
There were conflicting reports about the total number of people injured from the incident. Other publications claimed there were four injured from gunshot wounds while others said there were only three. On top of those injured from when the student opened fire, authorities confirmed five more received injuries due to the stampede after shots rang out. Other publications claimed six people received injuries from the attempt to get out of the school, Washington Post revealed.
The teen had a rifle, two handguns, and two grenades with him when he went to school. The headmaster spotted the teen taking out his handgun but before he could do more serious damages, the headmaster rushed to the teen and tried to reason with him. The teen reportedly looked at American-style mass killing videos and drew inspiration from them.
One of the videos he watched was the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado. The teen also loved playing a violent game called "Hatred."
Police said the incident was not related to terrorism, Aljazeera reported. The possible motive for the attack was reportedly because of the teenager's difficulty in establishing a relationship with the other students.
The suspect was of European descent. Authorities did not release any other information about the teen.
Authorities ordered a lock down in all schools in the area after the shooting. It was ruled the incident was an isolated case.
The attack at the high school came after the November 2015 Paris attack wherein 130 people died when the members of the Islamic State carried out simultaneous attacks. France continued to be under the state of emergency.
