ByREUTERS
Updated:

A pupil at a school near the French city of Marseille shot and wounded two teachers on Monday with a hunting rifle that had been hidden in a guitar case, causing panic as children ran for cover, officials said.

A supervisor at Joseph Lakanal middle school disarmed the 14-year-old before police arrived, Aubagne mayor Jean-Pierre Squillari told reporters. Both victims, the school's head teacher and another female teacher, were hospitalized, though neither suffered life-threatening injuries, he added.

There was no immediate indication that the shooting was linked to a three-week wave of protests, some violent, that have rocked high schools across the country. French President Emmanuel Macron condemned those incidents of violence on Monday.

Macron also said on X/Twitter he stood in full support and solidarity with the injured, the students and their parents after Monday's shooting. "I salute the composure and exemplary response of the educational team, which made it possible to avoid the worst," he said.

The attacker was later detained by police.

"It's a kid who goes to that school. He entered with a rifle, the investigation will determine how, and fired twice in a corridor toward the principal and a teacher," Squillari said.

The Marseille Prosecutor's office said it had opened a probe into attempted murder. There were no clues yet on the pupil's motivations, it said.

'We were panicking, we ran'

One student told Reuters that her maths teacher had played down the bang of the first gunshot blast as noise from nearby construction works. A subsequent blast was followed by an alarm and classes emptied into the corridors.

"We were panicking, we ran," the student said. "There were two ways out: one passage to the sports hall and one passage to go outside. Survival instinct took over, and I ran towards the outside."

French high school and university students attend a demonstration as part of a nationwide day of protests and blockades, voicing anger over overcrowded classrooms, teacher shortages, and dilapidated school buildings, which they blame on years of underinvestment, in Nantes, France, October 6, 2026.
French high school and university students attend a demonstration as part of a nationwide day of protests and blockades, voicing anger over overcrowded classrooms, teacher shortages, and dilapidated school buildings, which they blame on years of underinvestment, in Nantes, France, October 6, 2026. (credit: REUTERS/STEPHANE MAHE)

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen, frontrunner in the race to replace Macron next spring, said the government was losing control of security in schools.

Eddy Sid, spokesperson for the SGP-FO police union, told BFM TV there was no apparent link between the shooting and high-school protests against understaffing and lack of funding.

There had been no blockades at the Joseph Lakanal College.