France shooting: Jewish school in Toulouse attacked

Children are reported to be among at least three people killed in a shooting outside a Jewish school in Toulouse, south-west France.

Witnesses told French media that one adult and two children were among the dead.

They said a man opened fire on people waiting at a school drop-off point and then fled on a scooter.

It comes days after three soldiers were shot dead by a man on a scooter in the same part of France.

A 30-year-old paratrooper was gunned down in a residential area of Toulouse just over a week ago, while two soldiers were killed and a third wounded as they used a cashpoint in the town of Montauban, some 29 miles (46km) away, on Thursday.

Local residents immediately linked last week's attacks with the latest shootings.

Christopher Bockman, a freelance journalist in Toulouse, told the BBC that the soldiers who had been targeted were of ethnic origin and it appeared as if the gunman was deliberately targeting ethnic minorities in the area.

He said the city was in lockdown as police scoured the streets for the culprit.

The attack is reported to have happened outside Ozar Hatorah school in the Joliment area of the city.

A French television correspondent at the scene said a man on a black scooter opened fire, killing three people - including two children - and badly wounding several others.

Interior Minister Claude Gueant has ordered security to be tightened around all French Jewish schools and is due to arrive in the city later in the morning, the AFP news agency reports.