PARIS (AP) – An armed high school student was arrested and police fanned out around a picturesque perfume capital in southern France after a school shooting that left at least two wounded.
The incident at the Alexis de Tocqueville high school in the town of Grasse provoked shock in France, where such school shootings are rare. The country remains tense and under a state of emergency after deadly Islamic extremist attacks over the past two years.
One student with weapons was arrested, according to a French police official. The official, who was not authorized to be publicly named, would not elaborate on what weapon or weapons the teen was carrying.
The government minister for victims affairs, Juliette Meadel, tweeted that two people were wounded and all the students are now safe.
Police cordoned off the area and worried residents gathered outside, along with several emergency vehicles. The town is about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the southern city of Nice.
An employee of a nearby electronics store said police had asked residents to stay indoors. An employee of sports chain Decathlon, which has a branch less than 500 meters from the high school, said he’d seen about 40 high school students leaving from the area and gathering in a nearby parking lot.
Both local residents would not provide their names.
The government sent out an alert warning of an attack after police reported that shots were fired. The alert came in a system implemented by the government after the deadly November 2015 attacks in Paris.