Hell in a Handbasket

One thing in particular makes it hard to buy the 'accident all the way through' idea: Every semi-auto and auto firearm I know of, to actually fire in the semi- or full-auto mode(gas from one shot cycles the action, loading the next round) requires a blank adapter attached at the muzzle; without it, there's not enough gas pressure to cycle the action. Which means not only would he have to have live ammo, he'd have to have removed the adapter from the muzzle. Which doesn't sound like an accident.

French chief quits over shooting

The French army chief of staff, Gen Bruno Cuche, has resigned two days after a soldier injured 17 people at a military show.

Gen Cuche offered his resignation on Tuesday to President Nicolas Sarkozy who accepted it.

The soldier used real bullets instead of blanks at the public demonstration at a barracks in south-western France.

Four people, including a child, were seriously injured in the incident. They are now said to be out of danger.

On Monday, President Sarkozy, who visited the wounded in hospital, said he would seek explanations from the whole chain of command over the incident.

Earlier, Defence Minister Herve Morin called for "immediate sanctions... without waiting for the conclusions of the judicial and military enquiries".

The incident highlighted "grave deficiencies in the use of ammunition and in the security of public demonstrations held at regiments' open days", the defence ministry said in a statement.

The resignation is a measure of how seriously the French government, and in particular President Sarkozy, is taking this extraordinary breach of safety procedures, says a BBC correspondent in Paris.

'Unintentional' shooting

The shooting occurred during a public demonstration of hostage-freeing techniques at a barracks in Carcassonne, in the Aude region.

The sergeant who fired the shots is being held in custody and is expected to be charged on Tuesday with causing unintentional injury.

It is now thought he had held on to some live ammunition from a previous exercise in breach of regulations and mistakenly loaded them into his assault rifle during the display.

Questions are also being asked about the organisation of the event, in which an actor posing as a terrorist was positioned among the public that meant that the soldier was firing straight into the crowd.

For France, it is an appallingly embarrassing incident just as the country takes over the presidency of the European Union, with defence one of President Sarkozy's top priorities for the next few months, our correspondent adds.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/7483159.stm
Published: 2008/07/01 11:30:33 GMT
© BBC MMVIII

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French shooting show injures 17

A military show in southern France has left 17 people wounded, after real bullets were used instead of blanks.

The injured included five children. Four people, including one child, were said to have been seriously hurt - though three have now stabilised.

The incident occurred during a public demonstration of hostage-freeing techniques at a barracks in Aude.

The soldier who fired the shots has been detained - though an official said it was probably an accident.

It is not clear why the wrong ammunition was used in Sunday's demonstration.

But it was "99.9%" likely to be "an unintentional fault," Colonel Benoit Royal, head of the French army's information service, told the AFP news agency on Monday.

'No psychological problems'

However, Defence Minister Herve Morin said: "I cannot rule out anything because we don't know what might be going on in a man's head."

He said "an experienced soldier" should not be able to confuse blanks with real bullets.

"According to initial findings of the inquiry, the incident involved a soldier with a perfect record, who had participated in operations and had seven to eight years of experience," he said.

"There is nothing that would make one think he had behavioural or psychological problems," he added.

Reports from the scene say the hostage scenario had been acted out five times before a crowd at the Laperrine military barracks, near Carcassonne, when on the sixth take real bullets began flying through the air, and onlookers fell to the ground.

Fifteen civilians were among the 17 injured.

Gilles Hulard, a doctor from Carcassonne's rescue service said: "The condition of patients injured the most seriously have stabilised, including that of a three-year-old child very seriously injured, who seems to be improving."

He said the worst injuries were sustained by a man shot in the chest, who was still in critical condition."

In a statement, French President Nicolas Sarkozy expressed his horror at the incident and said he was urgently waiting for the results of an official investigation.

The president was planning to visit the injured in hospitals in Carcassonne and Toulouse later, his office said.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/7480483.stm
Published: 2008/06/30 08:27:31 GMT
© BBC MMVIII