A 13-year-old French boy set out on Tuesday to mow down his teachers with a shotgun but abandoned the plan when he arrived at the school and found it surrounded by police, officials said.
The boy’s parents raised the alarm when they realized he had taken the family gun from their house near Beauvais, north of Paris, and was headed to his school in Beauvais itself, officials said.
The teenager was in custody on suspicion of attempted murder and admitted his homicidal intentions during an interview, Beauvais prosecutor James Juan said in a statement.
He wanted “to attack his teachers who quarreled with him even though he had done nothing [wrong],” Juan said.
The boy, said to be a video game enthusiast, had left a message on his blog on Monday stating that “this is the last day of my life.”
“He left his home with a loaded hunting rifle and 25 cartridges,” senior local official Raymond Yeddou said.
“He went in the direction of the school where, according to his declarations, he intended to kill his teachers,” Yeddou said.
But when he saw a major police presence in front of and inside the school he abandoned his plan and instead headed to a cyber cafe in Beauvais town center where his parents later found him.
Police warned the head of the 2,000-pupil Saint Esprit school to keep his students confined to their classrooms as the drama unfolded.
The alarm was raised at 8:15am by the boy’s parents, who had become concerned by his unusual behavior and searched their house, finding the gun and ammunition gone.
Though generally a good student, the source said, the boy has recently had problems at school and was worried about a parent-teacher meeting scheduled for Tuesday.
The Beauvais prosecutor said the boy wanted to stop the meeting at the academically high-achieving school from going ahead.
Dominique Moutin, the head of the school, said nothing in the boy’s behavior had suggested that Tuesday’s events were likely.
Nauru has started selling passports to fund climate action, but is so far struggling to attract new citizens to the low-lying, largely barren island in the Pacific Ocean. Nauru, one of the world’s smallest nations, has a novel plan to fund its fight against climate change by selling so-called “Golden Passports.” Selling for US$105,000 each, Nauru plans to drum up more than US$5 million in the first year of the “climate resilience citizenship” program. Almost six months after the scheme opened in February, Nauru has so far approved just six applications — covering two families and four individuals. Despite the slow start —
MOGAMI-CLASS FRIGATES: The deal is a ‘big step toward elevating national security cooperation with Australia, which is our special strategic partner,’ a Japanese official said Australia is to upgrade its navy with 11 Mogami-class frigates built by Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles said yesterday. Billed as Japan’s biggest defense export deal since World War II, Australia is to pay US$6 billion over the next 10 years to acquire the fleet of stealth frigates. Australia is in the midst of a major military restructure, bolstering its navy with long-range firepower in an effort to deter China. It is striving to expand its fleet of major warships from 11 to 26 over the next decade. “This is clearly the biggest defense-industry agreement that has ever
DEADLY TASTE TEST: Erin Patterson tried to kill her estranged husband three times, police said in one of the major claims not heard during her initial trial Australia’s recently convicted mushroom murderer also tried to poison her husband with bolognese pasta and chicken korma curry, according to testimony aired yesterday after a suppression order lapsed. Home cook Erin Patterson was found guilty last month of murdering her husband’s parents and elderly aunt in 2023, lacing their beef Wellington lunch with lethal death cap mushrooms. A series of potentially damning allegations about Patterson’s behavior in the lead-up to the meal were withheld from the jury to give the mother-of-two a fair trial. Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale yesterday rejected an application to keep these allegations secret. Patterson tried to kill her
MILITARY’S MAN: Myint Swe was diagnosed with neurological disorders and peripheral neuropathy disease, and had authorized another to perform his duties Myint Swe, who became Myanmar’s acting president under controversial circumstances after the military seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi more than four years ago, died yesterday, the military said. He was 74. He died at a military hospital in the capital, Naypyidaw, in the morning, Myanmar’s military information office said in a statement. Myint Swe’s death came more than a year after he stopped carrying out his presidential duties after he was publicly reported to be ailing. His funeral is to be held at the state level, but the date had not been disclosed, a separate statement from the
RSS