Paris nursery school shooting: Man kills himself

The shooting happened in an upmarket area of Paris

A man in his 60s has shot himself in front of a dozen children at a nursery school close to the Eiffel Tower in Paris, French officials say.

He is said to have entered the school in the 7th arrondissement with a sawn-off shotgun.

The man then turned the weapon on himself and pulled the trigger in front of the children and an adult, Le Parisien newspaper reports.

Police have opened an investigation into the incident.

No information has so far been released about the man's identity or motives.

French Education Minister Vincent Peillon cut short a trip to Brussels to visit the school on Thursday afternoon.

The nursery, said to be a private Catholic school, is located in the rue Cler, a famous market street close to the Eiffel Tower. The area has been cordoned off.

'It was horrible'

The incident took place shortly before noon on Thursday as children were leaving the school premises for the lunch break, police officials said.

Witnesses told local media the man entered the school "without difficulty".

A dozen children witnessed the shooting, the office of Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe said in a statement.

One of the children told French broadcaster Europe 1 she heard a gunshot and "saw all the blood".

"I saw the man fall backwards when he killed himself," she said, adding "It was horrible."

A boy who also witnessed the incident, said he was "very frightened".

"I thought there were terrorists who had guns and were coming into the school. Then I saw the man on the ground with a lot of blood."

Authorities are establishing a psychological trauma unit to provide support to children and school staff, local media report.

Resident Matthew Fraser, who lives near the school, described the area as an upmarket area of Paris that is home to many foreign embassies.

"It's a safe, quiet, upper-class area," he told the BBC. "No-one would expect this sort of thing to happen here."