14-Year-Old Shoots Principal and Teacher at Aubagne Middle School in Southern France

A 14-year-old pupil opened fire with a hunting rifle inside Joseph-Lakanal middle school in Aubagne, near Marseille, on the morning of 12 October 2026, wounding the principal and a teacher.

The boy, a ninth-grade student, entered the school shortly after 9 a.m. carrying a calibre-12 shotgun hidden in a guitar case. Around 9:25 a.m. he removed the weapon and fired at least once or twice in the first-floor corridors, hitting the 53-year-old principal in the thighs and lower back and a 37-year-old mathematics teacher in the thigh. A third person sustained a minor graze. Both main victims were hospitalised; their injuries were not life-threatening. No pupils were harmed.

A staff member restrained the boy. Marseille prosecutor’s office opened an investigation for attempted murder. The pupil’s father was taken into custody. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez visited the scene and said investigators were examining how the weapon reached the school. Prefect Jacques Witkowski stated that the suspect was not previously known for delinquency or radicalisation. Education Minister Édouard Geffray confirmed the details. President Emmanuel Macron praised the cool-headedness of the school staff.

Pupils heard shots, then the fire alarm. They evacuated class by class and were reunited with parents outside the ochre-coloured building. One parent, Laetitia Galet, said her daughter called from a blocked number saying there was a killer in the school. Roughly 625 students attend the campus on the edge of a shopping district. The school remained closed the following day, with support sessions planned for Wednesday.

Authorities said there appeared to be no link to recent high-school protests across France. The motive remained unclear on the day of the attack; the pupil did not make any particular statements according to initial witness accounts. The shotgun was a hunting weapon, not a military firearm. French law restricts possession of such rifles, and police are investigating the source.

The incident is the latest school shooting in Europe involving a minor and a legally owned hunting firearm. The immediate consequence is temporary closure of the school and psychological support for students and staff. Longer-term questions concern school security screening and parental responsibility for firearms stored at home. The Marseille prosecutor will decide on charges once the investigation advances.