| Submit your comments on this article |
| Europe |
| French army chief resigns over shooting |
| 2008-07-01 |
| 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 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. 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. |
| Posted by:tu3031 |
| #7 Any mention of the shooter's identity? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2008-07-01 17:09 |
| #6 Sorry, Sark impresses less all the time. If he tries to jam the EU At least Cuche resigned. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2008-07-01 15:18 |
| #5 Found another nugget here. A possible motive for the "accident"? Morale in the French military is said to be low after Mr Sarkozy announced major defence reforms last month that will lead to 54,000 job cuts. Around 20 regiments may be axed as the French military pools resources and focuses more on intelligence gathering and hi-tech equipment. |
| Posted by: Scooter McGruder 2008-07-01 15:09 |
#4 Responsible, impressed? Don't be:Gen Bruno Cuche, the army chief, was said to be appalled at Mr Sarkozy's "particularly disagreeable" reaction to the drama. Looks like the military rot goes straight to the top. I give credit to Sark. |
| Posted by: Scooter McGruder 2008-07-01 15:06 |
| #3 I'm impressed. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2008-07-01 15:03 |
| #2 The guy fied mistakenly? Come on, please! First: He had to msitakenly fail to take a look at the bullets. Possible. Second: In order to fire real ammo so he had to mistakenly remove the blank cartridge adpater Third: He was on full auto. Firing full auto in a hostage realease mission? No way. So he had to mistakenly switch to full auto. |
| Posted by: JFM 2008-07-01 14:13 |
| #1 It happened on his watch. He accepted responsibility. I salute General Cuche and wish him well. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2008-07-01 14:00 |