27 March, 2002 08:09 GMT
Reuters Photo By Marco Trujillo
NANTERRE, France (Reuters) - A lone gunman opened fire at a town council meeting in northwest Paris today, killing eight people and wounding around 30 in what Prime Minister Lionel Jospin called an act of "raging madness".
Police said they had arrested the gunman, who calmly sprayed bullets at some 40 people at a council meeting in the suburb of Nanterre, but that the motive for the attack was unclear.
Witnesses said the gunman fired randomly at council members from the public gallery at 1:15 a.m. local time (0015 GMT) after Nanterre Mayor Jacqueline Frayasse had closed the meeting.
"We were about to leave when suddenly a man got up and started shooting straight ahead," Frayasse told reporters.
Another witness told France Info radio the man had two or three guns and was shooting with one under each arm...
The shooting comes less than a month before the first round of a presidential election in which crime is a key issue.
Frontrunners Jospin, a Socialist, and conservative President Jacques Chirac have both promised a crackdown on crime.
BLOODY ATTACK
Some 30 people were wounded, at least 14 of them seriously, in the attack...
Witnesses said survivors wrestled the man, in his thirties, to the floor and held him until police arrived. "After he was overpowered, he shouted 'kill me, kill me'," Batard said.
One witness said the gunman was a member of France's Green party and that he started shooting Green representatives before opening fire randomly on others in the room.
"He comes to all the council meetings and had no motive to do this," the witness said...
Media reports said the man was 33 and lived with his mother in Nanterre....
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