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A 14-year-old ninth-grade student was arrested moments after the shooting at Lakanal middle school in Aubagne on October 12 2026 according to Aubagne Mayor Jean-Pierre Squillari. The teenager entered the premises armed with a 12-gauge shotgun and opened fire striking the 53-year-old principal and a 37-year-old teacher in their lower bodies. A third person suffered a slight bullet graze while no pupils were harmed during the attack which took place inside the school grounds. The two staff members sustained superficial wounds that were treated at the scene and are not considered life-threatening a statement from local officials confirmed.
Education Minister Edouard Geffray posted on social media that he would travel to the site near Marseille that afternoon alongside Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez. “Two staff members from the National Education system a principal and a teacher were victims this morning of gunshot wounds at Lakanal middle school in Aubagne” Geffray wrote. “A student is said to be the perpetrator.” The minister’s announcement came as police established a visible presence around the middle school and began questioning witnesses.
The incident has no connection to ongoing nationwide student protests over school conditions according to the Bouches-du-Rhône prefecture. Le Parisien reported citing sources close to the inquiry that the middle school was not involved in any blockades or related unrest. Investigators have yet to establish a motive for the shooting which French media described as isolated from the broader protest movement.
French education ministry figures show a general rise in serious incidents at schools over the past 20 years with a peak recorded in the 2023-2024 academic year. The ministry’s data places the annual average of such events including physical assaults thefts and threats at around 100 000 with colleges and high schools accounting for nearly half the total. An assessment by the ministry found that threats and physical aggression have increased in secondary establishments while primary schools see fewer cases overall.
This attack forms part of a pattern of violence directed at education staff in recent years. In February 2026 a 60-year-old art teacher was stabbed three or four times in front of students by a 14-year-old pupil in Sanary-sur-Mer leaving her in critical condition according to Toulon’s public prosecutor Raphaël Balland. The 2020 beheading of history teacher Samuel Paty outside his school near Paris remains a reference point for debates on educator safety various judicial proceedings have noted.
School staff restrained the suspect before police took him into custody according to accounts shared with broadcasters. Officials have not released the teenager’s identity but confirmed he was detained at the scene without resistance. The inquiry continues into how the pupil obtained the hunting weapon and entered the premises undetected.
