2 Soldiers killed, 1 wounded, in France shooting

Two French soldiers were killed and another seriously wounded in a drive-by shooting near a military base in the southwestern city of Montauban on Thursday, a state official told AFP. Details were not immediately clear, but the locally-based official said the shooting took place around 2:10 pm local time (1310 GMT) on a street not far from the base housing the 17th Parachute Engineer Regiment. The official said a scooter-rider, wearing a helmet with visor, opened fire on the three uniformed soldiers on a street near businesses and a bank branch, then fled. Authorities launched an extensive search for the gunman involving a large number of police and national gendarmes, the official said. The incident follows another shooting on Sunday that saw a 30-year-old soldier shot dead by an assailant on a motorcycle in a residential area of Toulouse, 46 kilometres (29 miles) south of Montauban. Prosecutors said they were considering a number of possibilities in that shooting, including that it was the result of a personal dispute.