<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=windows-1255"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2600.0" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Gunman kills eight in Paris shooting  <BR> <BR>27 March, 2002 08:09 GMT   <BR>  <BR>Reuters Photo <BR>By Marco Trujillo </FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>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". </FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>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. </FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>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. </FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>"We were about to leave when suddenly a man got up and started shooting straight ahead," Frayasse told reporters. </FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Another witness told France Info radio the man had two or three guns and was shooting with one under each arm...</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The shooting comes less than a month before the first round of a presidential election in which crime is a key issue. </FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Frontrunners Jospin, a Socialist, and conservative President Jacques Chirac have both promised a crackdown on crime. </FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>BLOODY ATTACK </FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Some 30 people were wounded, at least 14 of them seriously, in the attack... </FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>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. </FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>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. </FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>"He comes to all the council meetings and had no motive to do this," the witness said... </FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Media reports said the man was 33 and lived with his mother in Nanterre.... </FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>original: </FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><A href="http://www.reuters.co.uk/news_article.jhtml;jsessionid=OAQEEP4FAVDWACRBAEKSFEYKEEARMIWD?type=topnews&StoryID=746670">http://www.reuters.co.uk/news_article.jhtml;jsessionid=OAQEEP4FAVDWACRBAEKSFEYKEEARMIWD?type=topnews&StoryID=746670</A><BR></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV></BODY></HTML>