French marines shoot children in bungled hostage display - Telegraph

Seventeen people have been injured, including a child left in a critical condition, after French soldiers fired live bullets instead of blanks during an open day display.

Bernard Lemaire, the chief of the regional administration in Aude, said that investigators believed the deadly ammunition was loaded by mistake.

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That's terrible! Hope they all survive this.

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This is a pair of Dutch resistance crystal radios, built into a small metal can, and a matchbox. The image is from a postcard bought at a Dutch Resistance Museum in Amsterdam. The matchbox is marked in Swedish, but Swedish matches were sold in Holland for many years..
Scott

Anyone got more news on this? Thanx! The news in Finland don´t tell anything new about this.

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Apparently, it happened during a public demonstration by French Special Forces of a hostage rescue exercise. They were supposed to use blanks, but at least one of the firearms somehow was loaded with live cartridges.

I don't understand how this could have happened accidentally, since blanks look very different from live rounds. I have heard the soldier(s) involved has been detained pending an investigation.

The Chief of Staff of the French Army has apparently resigned over this affair. Reports indicate that the Sergeant involved had kept ammo from a previous live-firing practice and accidentally loaded them into his assault rifle. The 'terrorist suspect' for the public demonstration was reportedly situated among the spectators.

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"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson

Thanx guys for the extra info!

Man, what an awful thing to happen. Seems like there is a problem in collecting live ammo back after practice shooting or the fellow wanted to keep some souvenirs with him?

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It is awful. I confirm this is an accident during a show. Among the crowd were some of the soldiers own families. The doctors have done wonders and apparently all 17 could survive (too early to tell) despite the Famas bullet wounds. According to journalists one child had an arm amputated by a bullet and a bullet in his heart.

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BBC NEWS | World | Europe | France suspends 'shooting' troops

Two teams of soldiers and five officers have been suspended from a French barracks where a soldier injured 17 civilians during a military show.

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I wish politicians would treat themselves as harsh as they treat the army. I really think these men need support in such a terrible moment, not to be suspended.

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It's an awful incident for all concerned, & I'm normally against simplistic blame for the 'man on the ground', but surely in a case like this, particularly in public, the sole responsibility does lie with the man/men who loaded and fired the weapons & their overseers.
Mistakes involving firearms is a serious business, particularly for professional soldiers. They shouldn't happen anywhere, but they really shouldn't happen at a public display. It's not like it's a malfunction, those rounds were pushed into a magazine by a human hand.

Cheers,
Adam.

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"Wars cannot be fought with dream stuff" - Sir Percy Hobart.

What I can't understand is how such a mistake, if mistake it was, could be made by a professional soldier. Every blank round I have ever seen looks very different from a live round. Blank rounds have no bullet, the case is simply crimped over some sort of light wad made of paper or plastic. They even feel different from live rounds.

And why wasn't there a weapons check before the demo? And do the French not use Blank Adapters for thier rifles?

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For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman.

I'm the "Confederate with a pipe"!! LOL

If I was a hostage, I wouldn't want French Special forces rescuing me - they shot the hostages!

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