Live ammo fired at crowd in open day horror
Pastor Dale Morgan
*Live ammo fired at crowd in open day horror*
From correspondents in Carcassonne, France
June 30, 2008 05:15am
Article from: Agence France-Presse
* Live rounds used instead of blanks at military open day
* 17 people injured; two of them critically ill
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.''