Motorcycle Riding Assassins Kill Two French Paratroopers South Of Paris
Motorcycle attacks on French soldiers leave three dead.
A gunman riding a motorcycle sprayed three French paratroopers with machine gun fire in southern France this week. The attack killed two of the soldiers and critically wounded a third according to local authorities.
The shooting marked the second attack on French soldiers in less than a week and occurred in the city of Montauban according to France’s Le Figaro newspaper.
A similar shooting a few days before in Toulouse, about a half hour south of Montauban, resulted in a gunman on a motorcycle killing another French soldier. The off-duty soldier in Toulouse was shot in the head at point blank range by a gunman aboard a motor scooter. Witnesses say Imad Ibn-Ziaten was standing near his own motorcycle in front of a gymnasium and that he was not in uniform at the time of the fatal attack.
Reports say all three of the soldiers in the Montauban incident were wearing their uniforms at the time of the attack. Two of them, paratroopers aged 26 and 24 years old, died at the scene from their wounds, and the third is in critical condition.
French Defense Minister, Gerard Longuet, said a large number of police officers are part of a dragnet dedicated to tracking down the gunman. He added that the motive for the shooting incidents is not yet known and it’s also unclear at this time whether or not the attacks were perpetrated by the same gunman or group. Witnesses on the scenes said both attacker were committed by shooters on motorcycles and wearing helmets.