Army fires live amo into crowd at exhibition
June 30, 2008
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TWO people including a child were in a critical condition today after live bullets were used instead of blanks during a French special forces open day, army and regional officials said.
Another two people are in a serious condition.
Seventeen people, 15 of them civilians and two of them soldiers, were injured in the bizarre incident, as parachutists from a marines parachute regiment demonstrated to the public the techniques involved in hostage liberation exercises.
According to the army toll, two are in a critical condition after “incomprehensible” scenes at a barracks near Carcassone, in the country’s southwest.
One soldier has been detained, although no explanation was immediately forthcoming for why the wrong ammunition was loaded into weapons.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy was urgently awaiting the results of a top-level military probe into the accident, according to a presidential statement.
A regional official, Bernard Lemaire, told France 3 radio that two civilians including one child were “critical”.
He said that investigators believed the deadly ammunition was loaded by mistake.
“The question being asked is ‘Did the soldier engage in a criminal act or not?’,” Lemaire said.
“For now, no one can answer that, but the theory being worked on is one of error.”
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