French Army: live ammo at public demonstration was accident (Roundup)

Jun 30, 2008, 10:20 GMT

French military personnel pick up spent shells at the place in the Marine Paratroopers barracks at Carcassonne, Southern France, 29 June 2008, where an assault demonstration by French Military personnel ended with sixteen people, 15 of them civilians, injured when a soldier fired with live ammunition instead of blanks. Four of the casualties are in serious condition, and the soldier has been detained pending the result of the enquiry. EPA/MAXPPP/CHRISTOPHE BARREAU

Paris - A spokesman for the French Army said a French paratrooper injured 17 people almost certainly by accident when he used live ammunition instead of blanks at a public demonstration, French media reported Monday.

The chances that live bullets were used by accident, rather than intentionally, are '99.9 per cent,' Colonel Benoit Royal, head of the French Army information service, said.

Thirteen of the 17 people injured in the fusillade on Sunday at an Army barracks in the southern city of Carcassonne were still in hospital on Monday, France Info radio said. All of them were now in stable condition.

Fifteen civilians and two soldiers were injured in the salvo. Five of the injured are children.

President Nicolas Sarkozy visited some of the victims at hospital on Monday and demanded explanations and sanctions.

'This is not normal,' he said. 'The entire chain (of command) must explain itself, from the person who did this to those surrounding him.'

Defence Minister Herve Morin told France Info, 'I exclude nothing, because we can not know what goes on in a man's mind.' He insisted, however, that mistakes were made, especially 'procedural errors.'

Late Sunday, another military spokesman said that it was almost impossible to mistake live bullets for blanks because they are a different colour and shape.

'The first bullet in the cartridge clip is clearly visible and easy to identify,' Colonel Jean-Pierre Perrin said. 'It is therefore nearly impossible to make a mistake.'

The incident occurred during a hostage-freeing demonstration by a Marine infantry paratroop unit. The paratrooper who fired the live ammunition, an eight-year veteran, was detained and his equipment and weapons were seized for the ongoing investigation.