Gunman kills six-month-old child 'in cold blood' and three others at traveller camp in France

  Local media reports that three adults and a young child were killed in the shooting
 Four people have been killed including a 6-month-old child in a shooting in France, according to reports.

 


The shooting is understood to have taken place at 4.30pm in a traveller's camp near Roye in the Somme, French newspaper Le Courrier Picard said.

A 44-year-old policeman who was wounded in the incident has since died from his wounds, it was confirmed on Tuesday evening, with the interior minister praising their courage.

"Once again the security forces have demonstrated their courage," the interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, said.

French media Europe 1 said the child was just six months old, which was confirmed this evening by Mr Cazeneuve.

"A man has killed a 6-month-baby in cold blood," he said.

Police and fireman are at the scene, and a military helicopter is hovering overhead. The motives for the shooting are unknown. It took place on land occupied by travellers behind a police station.

At least three others are understood to have been wounded in the shooting.

They include a scecond policeman, a child and the gunman himself, it was reported.

The policeman is "seriously" injured, it was reported, along with the man who allegedly opened fire first.

A man and a woman from the travellers camp are also reported to have died in the attack.

It was not immediately clear what triggered the violence in the northern town of Roye, about 68 miles north of Paris.

But police sources told The Telegraph that the shooting is a criminal matter which is not linked to terrorism.

It comes as a 25-year-old Moroccan was arrested after being overpowered by passengers on a high-speed train from Amsterdam to Paris on Friday despite being armed with a Kalashnikov automatic rifle, a handgun and a box cutter.

Gunman Ayoub El Khazzani, who denies his attack was terror-motivated, was carrying 270 bullets for his AK-47 rifle and a bottle of petrol when he was thwarted, prosecutors have said.

He was also carrying a Luger pistol and a box-cutter, and had watched a jihadist video on YouTube on his mobile phone before carrying out the attack, prosecutor Francois Molins said.

collect by ...http://www.telegraph.co.uk