France shooting: Hunt for neo-Nazi paratroopers after Toulouse school massacre

POLICE hunting a motorcycle gunman, who shot dead three children and a rabbi at a Jewish school in Toulouse, are reportedly looking for three former soldiers sacked from the army for “neo-Nazi” activities.

The men were all ejected from an elite paratroop regiment in 2008 for a posed photo showing them giving Nazi salutes in front of a swastika flag.

The killings in the south-west French city shocked the nation, with president Nicolas Sarkozy condemning “the savagery” of the attack and vowing to apprehend those responsible.

There are concerns the killing spree was the latest in a string of racist murders. It came just five days after three soldiers from the same 17th Parachute Engineer Regiment were shot dead in broad daylight in the town of Montauban, 30 miles away.

Another soldier was shot in a Toulouse street by a gunman on a motorcycle eight days ago. The paratroopers killed and injured were of North African and French Caribbean origin.

While the motive for the latest attack remains unclear, police fear the shooting at the Ozar Hatorah school – which claimed the lives of a rabbi, his two small sons and another child – and the murder of the soldiers could be linked to, or carried out by, a far-right gunman with a grudge against ethnic minorities.

A French police official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said last night the same heavy-calibre .45 automatic pistol was used in all three incidents.

Mr Sarkozy said there were “similarities” between the shootings, but said the country must wait for police to carry out their investigations before the “hypothesis” could be confirmed.

France’s Le Point news magazine said: “This is the first real lead the police have. [They] believe there could be a link to the three soldiers dismissed from the army four years ago.

“The profile of these men corresponds to the scant information investigators have on the Toulouse killer – that is to say, muscular and tattooed. This lead is being followed up by both civilian and military authorities.”

The victims of yesterday’s attack were named as Rabbi Johnathan Sandler, 30, his two sons Aryeh, three, and Gavriel, six, and eight-year-old Miriam Monsonego, the daughter of the school’s headteacher, Yaacov Monsonego.

They died in a hail of gunfire after the motorcyclist rode up to the main door of the school shortly after 8am and began shooting with two guns, including an automatic weapon, firing 15 rounds in all.

Toulouse prosecutor Michel Valet said: “The man initially used a 9mm pistol after riding up to the school on his scooter.

“When this jammed he used a .45 calibre weapon, and chased pupils inside the school. The gunman shot at everyone he could see, children and adults, and some children were chased into the school before he fled the scene on a black scooter.”

Five other people were injured in the attack, including one 17-year-old college student who is fighting for his life. Officials threw up a ring of steel around Toulouse – road blocks are in place as far 80 miles from the city centre.

One eyewitness, Franck Califa, told Le Monde newspaper: “For now, I have only tears. I’m in shock. I do not think things like that can happen. I held one of the victims in my arms.”

Another witness, Patrick Rouimi, who works at the college, said the killer was riding a black motorbike and wearing a black crash helmet. He said he heard bursts of gunfire at a set-down and collection point for children at the school, whose pupils are aged six to 17.

Mr Sarkozy, whose grandfather was a Greek Jew, rushed to the school and ordered increased security at Jewish and Muslim buildings around Toulouse, while his prime minister, François Fillon, ordered officials to “secure” all school and religious buildings in France.

Mr Sarkozy, who visited the school accompanied by Richard Prasquier, the president of CRIF, the umbrella group representing Jewish organisations, said: “It’s a day of national tragedy. The savagery, the cruelty cannot win. Hate cannot win. The nation is much stronger.”

In Jerusalem, Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak said: “Whether it was a terror attack or a hate crime, the loss of life is unacceptable.”

Religious minorities, issues of race and the concept of a French national identity have emerged as a prominent issue in France’s current presidential campaign.

In recent weeks, Mr Sarkozy has suggested France should halve its intake of migrants because they cannot be properly integrated. Such comments have been widely interpreted as an attempt to claw back conservative voters from Marine Le Pen, of the anti-immigration National Front party.

Apart from Israel and the United States, France has the largest Jewish community in the world, estimated at about 500,000.

Toulouse has about 10,000 to 15,000 Jews in an overall population of 440,000, according to Jean-Paul Amoyelle, president of the Ozar Hatorah school network in France.

The city’s mayor, Pierre Cohen, said: “Everything leads one to believe that these were racist and antisemitic acts.”

Special prayers were offered yesterday at Notre Dame Cathedral while all French schools plan a minute’s silence today.

Last night the New York Police Department (NYPD) confirmed it had stepped up security at synagogues and other sites around the city following the attack. NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said there are no specific threats in New York, which has the largest Jewish population outside Israel.

MARTYN McLAUGHLIN