French police were hunting Friday for a black-clad gunman who calmly shot three soldiers on a shopping street in broad daylight, then turned one over and finished him off at close range. Two of the victims — parachute sappers aged 26 and 24 — died on the spot, in the southern garrison town of Montauban, and a third 28-year-old from the same regiment was in critical condition following the attack. Asked whether the shootings could have been an act of terrorism, Defence Minister Gerard Longuet said nothing had been ruled out, but the motive for the cold-blooded murders remained a complete mystery to stunned local officials. “Montauban does not understand. No one understands. The regiment does not understand. There’s never a valid explanation for murder, but we’re dealing with a true killer,” said local mayor Brigitte Bareges. On Thursday, at around 2:10 pm (1310 GMT) three uniformed soldiers from the 17th Parachute Engineering Regiment, which recently served in Afghanistan, were standing by a bank’s cash machine on a main street near their barracks. Most of France’s elite airborne units are based in the southwest region and have close ties with their regimental towns. The soldiers were killed opposite their barracks, on a street named after the renowned 1st Shock Battalion. The killer, clad in a black motorcycle outfit and a helmet with a visor, got down from a powerful Yamaha T-Max scooter and opened fire.
