Birthday party shooting leaves 4 dead in France

Authorities in France reported that a man opened fire on a birthday celebration in a town late on Saturday, killing four people, including the gunman.

The man went up to a neighboring home in Espinasse-Vozelle, a 1,000-person village in central France located 60 kilometers (37 miles) north of Clermont-Ferrand, where a 20-year-old was enjoying his birthday with his family.

According to the local prefecture, he opened fire on the partygoers, killing three of them before dying himself.

Both his father and the young man commemorating his birthday perished.

Police were still piecing together the “how and the why” of the attack, authorities said. The man appears to have shot at passing motorists before the deadly assault.

Jerome Piques, a local prosecutor, told AFP that the man, who was not among the party guests, approached the neighbouring house via a path linking both properties at around 9:30 pm (1930 GMT) before firing his gun loaded with lead bullets.

Four people were in hospital after being wounded in the shooting, but their injuries were not life-threatening, he said.

Fifteen others, who witnessed the shooting, were under observation by psychologists.

“It’s a shock,” Michel Marien, the mayor of Espinasse-Vozelle, told AFP. “We don’t know what triggered this, how a person loses control and does something like this.”

Police said the shooter, in his early 50s, appeared to have no prior convictions. The only trace of any irregularity were documents relating to unpaid family support payments, a source close to the case said.

“The exact sequence of events still needs to be checked,” the source said.

A large number of police and emergency services were on site Sunday.

Participants at the village’s Bastille Day celebration that were going on nearby were not harmed as police cordoned off the area.