AUBAGNE: A 14-yearold boy opened fire with a hunting gun at a middle school in France on Monday, wounding the headmaster and a teacherbefore being disarmed by a member of staff, local authorities said.

The shooting took place at Joseph-Lakanal middle school in the southern town of Aubagne, near Marseille, where a third person was grazed by gunfire, police said. Authorities said there did not appear to be a link with high school protests that have rocked France in recent weeks.

`The middle school was not affected by the high school students` protest,` police said. The suspect `came in carrying a bag which was aguitar case. He clearly removed a weapon from this guitar case a long gun,` said Marseille`s deputy public prosecutor Audrey Jouaneton. He fired at least four shots, including inside a classroom occupied by teachers and pupils, leaving a mark on a blackboard, she added.

The headmaster, 53, and teacher, 37, were not in critical condition, according to authorities.

`The suspect, for reasons as yet unknown, fired at the headteacher, who was hit by a shower of pellets in the thighs and lower back,` said Jacques Witkowski, prefect of the wider Bouches-du-Rhone region.-AFP