Masked Gunman Kills Four in Central France

TOURS, France â€”  A masked gunman identified as a train conductor opened fire on passersby near the railway station in this central French city Monday, killing four people and injuring eight.

The 44-year-old suspect, whose name was not given, was captured after fleeing to an underground parking garage across from the train station, police said. The man, who had no criminal record, suffered leg and chest injuries when he scuffled with police. He was taken to a hospital.

It was unclear what motivated the shooting. Police were reviewing security camera tapes to try to get a better idea of the circumstances surrounding the attack.

Witnesses said the man wore a ski mask and opened fire on bystanders in the center of town, repeatedly stopping to reload his gun.

“The maniac got out of his car and put on a balaclava. He looked a bit like Rambo, he had a rucksack, he had blackened his face. He started shooting at people, taking time to take aim at his targets with his gun,� a local store owner said.

The Tours government office identified the man as a worker for the state railway and said he may have had a grudge against his employers.

Police said that the man had been questioned in the hospital but that his answers were incoherent.

Dominique Schmitt, the government’s representative for the Indre-et-Loire region, said the suspect, a husband and father of three, was suffering from depression.

Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, speaking in Rennes, called the shooting an “act of sheer madness� and expressed sympathy for the families of the victims.

President Jacques Chirac, in a letter to Tours Mayor Jean Germain, condemned what he called a “barbaric act� and paid homage to the rapid reaction of the police.

French security forces have been on high alert since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.

France has increased the number of police in major cities under an anti-terrorism plan first used in the 1990s during a bombing campaign by Algerian militants.

Three people were killed near Tours’ main post office, police said. Another person was killed near the train station.

Jean-Francois Houssin, head of the regional government office in Tours, said the gunman, before he was captured, claimed to have a grenade. A 40-member SWAT team was searching the parking garage Monday afternoon, even though officials said they believed the gunman had acted alone.

Authorities said two police officers were among the eight injured in Tours, about 155 miles southwest of Paris, in the heart of France’s Loire Valley region, which is dotted with chateaus.

Jospin denied that there had been a security lapse.

“When someone . . . is seized by an act of murderous madness, that’s not a matter of ordinary security,� he said. “I don’t think the two things should be mixed up.�