French anti-terrorism prosecutor takes over investigation into school shooting


PARIS, Oct 13 (Reuters) - ⁠The French anti-terrorism prosecutor has taken over an ⁠investigation into a school shooting after an initial ‌probe found the 14-year-old suspect appeared to belong to a group called the True Crime Community.

A pupil at a school near ​the southern city of Marseille shot ⁠and wounded two teachers ⁠on Monday with a hunting rifle that had been ⁠hidden ‌in a guitar case, causing panic as children ran for cover, officials said.

The anti-terrorism ⁠prosecutor's office said on Tuesday the Marseille ​Prosecutor's Office had ‌decided to relinquish jurisdiction for the case.

"Initial investigations, ⁠including an ​analysis of the minor's digital devices, indicate probable affiliation with the True Crime Community (TCC) movement and suggest that ⁠the criminal act committed at his ​school was motivated by this ideology," the prosecutor said in a statement on Tuesday.

"The TCC is an ecosystem of ⁠online communities that glorifies perpetrators of mass killings and, in certain ways, incites the use of extreme violence," it added.

It said it had opened investigations into ​charges of "attempted murder in connection ⁠with a terrorist enterprise, participation in a terrorist criminal ​conspiracy with the intent to commit ‌crimes against persons, and violations ​of weapons laws in connection with a terrorist enterprise."

(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon and Inti Landauro)

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