French police detained a 14-year-old student who wounded his middle school principal and a teacher in their legs with a shotgun hidden in a guitar case at Joseph Lakanal middle school in Aubagne on Monday.
The boy fired twice on the first floor and twice on the second floor, hitting a teaching board, before a staff member courageously disarmed him in a stairwell. The victims were hospitalized with non-life-threatening 12-gauge pellet injuries.
Marseille prosecutor Nicolas Bessone and deputy prosecutor Audrey Jouaneton said his motives remain unknown. The shooting at the school, located 15 kilometers east of Marseille, was unrelated to ongoing pupil protests.
President Emmanuel Macron praised staff composure for preventing a worse outcome, while Education Minister Édouard Geffray condemned rising violence. Counseling was offered.
School gun violence remains rare in France, following a 2017 shooting that wounded four, a 2025 stabbing killing an employee, and another 2025 stabbing leaving one student dead and three injured.