Live rounds injure demo spectators

Seventeen people were hurt, including five children, after real bullets were “mistakenly” used in a military demonstration.

The shootings occurred at a paratrooper hostage liberation demonstration at the Third Marine Parachute Regiment barracks in Carcassonne.

"Suddenly, people were falling, we thought it was part of the exercise, and then we saw blood," one witness said.

Military and civilian investigations into the incident have begun.

One soldier, described as experienced with no history of behavioral or psychological problems, was detained following the incident.

Defence minister Hervé Morin said: "I cannot rule out anything because we don't know what might be going on in a man's head.”

"According to initial findings of the inquiry, the incident involved a soldier with a perfect record, who had participated in operations and had seven to eight years of experience. There is nothing that would make one think he had behavioral or psychological problems," he added.

He said that "an experienced soldier" would not confuse blanks and real bullets, adding that the two munitions are packed into different-coloured magazines.

Earlier, Morin told journalists the soldier who fired the live rounds had an exemplary record.

"Security regulations were respected,” he said.

“The use of blanks requires a distance of at least 10m from the public and the public was more than 10m away," he said.

The Prefect of the Aude department, Bernard Lemaire, said that investigators believed the deadly ammunition was loaded by mistake.

The head of the army's information services, Colonel Benoit Royal, said it was "99.9%" likely to be "an unintentional fault.”

Gilles Hulard, a doctor from Carcassonne's rescue service, said: "The conditions of patients injured the most seriously have stabilised, including that of a three-year-old child very seriously injured, who seems to be improving.”

Most critically injured was a man with wounds to his chest, he said.

Photo: sxc ijsendoorn