Go Back   Sports Car Forum - MotorWorld.net > General Discussion > General Chat

General Chat General chat about anything that doesn't fit in another section here



Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 06-29-2008, 04:38 PM   #1
5vz-fe
Regular User
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Toronto
Posts: 6,167
Default Friendly Fire (Version France)

PARIS, France (AP) -- A military shooting demonstration in southeast France on Sunday left 16 people wounded, including children, when real bullets were used instead of blank ones, officials said.
Four of the wounded were in serious condition, including a 3-year-old child, Bernard Lemaire, chief of the regional administration in Aude, said on France-3 television. Fifteen of the injured were civilians.
A Defense Ministry official said the incident occurred during a demonstration of hostage-freeing techniques at the Laperrine military barracks. The official said investigators will look into why real bullets were used.
No information was immediately available about what kind of weapon was used.
The soldier who fired the shots has been detained, Lemaire said. He said the injuries were likely an accident but that it could have been a "criminal act."
In a statement, President Nicolas Sarkozy expressed his "horror" at Sunday's incident at the base, which houses the 3rd marine infantry parachute regiment.
The injured were taken to nearby hospitals, with the most seriously wounded taken to Toulouse.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe....ap/index.html
__________________
5vz-fe is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-29-2008, 05:45 PM   #2
Carbodiox
Regular User
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: EU
Posts: 174
Default

Quite the same situation has happened back to my country and it was officer on duty in armory that messed up types of amunitions giving real ones instead of rubber shotgun rounds
__________________
CHILLROCKS.COM / HEBEDESIGN.EU - my little company
Carbodiox is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-29-2008, 05:57 PM   #3
5vz-fe
Regular User
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Toronto
Posts: 6,167
Default

Criminal act or not, it's sad that these things happen.
__________________
5vz-fe is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-29-2008, 10:22 PM   #4
Mattk
Regular User
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Sydney, Australia
Posts: 6,610
Default

Bizarre incident. I'm surprised that civilians were the ones injured. I would think they'd have been kept well out of the way.
__________________
One stumble does not constitute total failure;
One victory does not constitute total success.
Mattk is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-29-2008, 10:29 PM   #5
RC45
Regular User
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Texas
Posts: 15,413
Default

Originally Posted by Mattk View Post
Bizarre incident. I'm surprised that civilians were the ones injured. I would think they'd have been kept well out of the way.
Uhm - bullets have a way of moving in a relatively straight line
RC45 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-30-2008, 02:14 AM   #6
79TA
Regular User
 
Join Date: May 2006
Location: SoCal
Posts: 1,570
Default

Well, generally when firing at something, one is, in theory, aiming. So I find it distressing that civilians were in the theoretical line of fire for this demonstration.

So were all 16 shots fired by one guy??? If so, you'd think he'd have figured things out a bit sooner, unless he was firing an automatic weapon (or a semi-auto or burst type gun very rapidly to cover an area) or something. Shots hitting the crowd just don't seem well-aimed in any case.
79TA is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-30-2008, 03:04 AM   #7
RC45
Regular User
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Texas
Posts: 15,413
Default

Originally Posted by 79TA View Post
Well, generally when firing at something, one is, in theory, aiming. So I find it distressing that civilians were in the theoretical line of fire for this demonstration.

So were all 16 shots fired by one guy??? If so, you'd think he'd have figured things out a bit sooner, unless he was firing an automatic weapon (or a semi-auto or burst type gun very rapidly to cover an area) or something. Shots hitting the crowd just don't seem well-aimed in any case.
If the demo was supposed to be done with blanks, and the observers were on more than one side to see "the whole show", then observers could easily have been in the line of fire.

Poor safety planning obviously... sad situation.
RC45 is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump