
The teenage son of a far-right French politician launched a gun attack on his own school today, wounding four people including the headmaster.

Kylian Barbey, 17, opened fire at the Alexis de Tocqueville lycee in the perfume town of Grasse, close to France's Mediterranean coast.

The gunman, armed with two revolvers, a hunting rifle and a backpack containing fake grenades, was arrested after the headteacher and three students were injured.

Head Herve Pizzinat and three pupils, two of whom were identified solely as Julie, 16, and Akram, 17.

Kylian Barbey, 17, opened fire at the Alexis de Tocqueville lycee in Grasse, injuring the headmaster and two pupils. He is the son of far-right French politician Franck Barbey, who tweeted: 'Heartfelt support for the director, the teachers, the staff, the pupils, and the parents of pupils.' Pictured right, Kylian Barbey pictured in a clown mask

Barbey is said to be obsessed by American high school shootings and had complained of bullying.

A frightening video on his Facebook page shows a man in a clown mask pointing a gun at the camera and pulling the trigger before holding it to his temple and doing the same.

The gun in the video was not loaded.

The last photo the suspected gunman posted on his Facebook page was of an eerie Gothic skeleton figure with long hair dressed in a black coat and walking with a pistol in one hand an an assault rifle in the other.

He made it his profile picture on Monday.

His cover photo on Facebook is a picture of the Joker - the Batman villain - with the caption 'give a man a mask and he'll become his true self'.

The suspected gunman changed his profile picture to this chilling photograph of a Gothic killer before going on a shooting spree

People embrace outside the school after a gunman, also suspected to be a student, opened fire at the headteacher

Firefighters carry a woman who appears to be grimacing in pain to the back of an emergency services vehicle in France

A member of special Police unit RAID outside the Tocqueville high school after a shooting incident injuring at least three people

Anti-terror police break into the school in Grasse, Southern France, shortly after the shooting

His Twitter feed only features four posts - all about the Nice terror attack in July last year when a 19-tonne cargo truck was Bastille Day on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, France, resulting in the deaths of 86.

Najat Vallaud-Belkacem France's education minister, visited the school this evening and described a 'mad act by a young man who is fragile and fascinated by guns'.

The four victims were in hospital tonight with non-life threatening injuries, while ten others who were lightly hurt in the rush to escape were treated at the scene.

Mr Pizzinat was thought to have intervened in a dispute between Barbey and another student, with the three students hurt by ricocheting bullets.

The shooter's father Franck Barbey is an elected municipal councillor for the hard right Rally for France (RPF) party, which fights globalisation, European federalism, and immigration.

Its members, including Mr Barbey, have traditionaly allied themselves with Marine Le Pen's National Front.

However, during France's current presidential election campaign, Mr Barbey is supporting Francois Fillon, of the conservative Republicans party.

The two were pictured together last year.

Students react after a gunman went on a shooting spree in a high school in Grasse, southern France, Thursday, March 16, 2017

Special operations team officers heavily armed with rifles and riot gear after a 17-year-old pupil went on a killing spree

Students walk up a hill away from the site of the shooting directed by a man in a bulletproof vest as RAID officers stand by

Children are escorted away from their high school after an student started firing at a headteacher in Grasse, southern France

A policeman wearing a bulletproof vest stands near a firefighters vehicle on a road near the Tocqueville high school in the southern French town of Grasse

Anti-terror police broke into the building after the shooting spree which injured at least three people and all schools in the town around 25 miles west of Nice were locked down with officers patrolling the streets.

Five others were hurt in the rush to escape.

Mr Pizzinat was thought to be the main target, with the two students hurt by ricocheting bullets.

'It was total panic,' said a student identified as Achraf, who described his ordeal to the BFM TV channel.

'The gunshots were just four or five metres from where we were. We thought the gunman was coming towards us. We heard him shouting.

'I just know the gunman by sight. He was gentle and low-key, not a nasty guy.'

Schoolgirls wrapped in gold, foil blankets are escorted away from the school as a mob of journalists huddle behind them

Worried-looking students walk away from the school as police officers line the streets in the immediate aftermath of the shooting

A schoolgirl leaves her high school after an attack in a high school in Grasse, southern France, where three people were hurt

Anti-terror police make their way to the scene of the shooting in Grasse, Southern France

A French Policeman wearing a bulletproof controls traffic on a road near the Tocqueville high school

Paramedics see to students who were evacuated from the school in France where a gunmen opened fire

Police cordon off the area as people gather to view the nearby high school following the shooting

Armed French policemen wearing bulletproof jackets walk at the Tocqueville high school in the southern French town of Grasse

Police officers coordinate operations near the Tocqueville high school in Grasse, southwestern France

A picture from the scene where a gunman is said to have opened fire inside a French high school

The Alexis de Tocqueville high school in Grasse, France, where the gunman opened fire, injuring at least two people

A rose is carried near the site of the shooting Thursday afternoon as a woman smokes a cigarette among the crowd

Members of the Research and Intervention Brigade (BRI) patrol after an attack in a high school in Grasse, southern France

French police forces stand guard near the scene of a shooting at Lycee Alexis de Tocqueville school in Grasse

Fabienne Atzori, the Grasse prosecutor, said the assailant 'went into class to find a person. He could not find him to begin with but then opened fire. The head teacher bravely intervened and was among those wounded.'

Ms Atzori added that Barbey may have been motivated by' bad relations with other pupils, he had a lot of difficulties.'

Today's three victims, including the school headteacher Hervé Pizzinat, were lightly injured.

The suspected gunman's father tweeted his support for Mr Pizzinat and the school in the immediate aftermath of the shooting spree.

He wrote: 'Wholeheartedly with the principal, teachers, staff, students and parent students at Tocqueville.'

Initially, there were fears the shooter might have an accomplice, and police were looking for him around the school grounds.

The first victim was also a student at the school, who alerted others to the presence of a shooter.

People stand outside a police security cordon as a French policeman walks near the Tocqueville high school

French Police officers control traffic near the Tocqueville high school in Grasse

An armed French Police officer controls traffic near the Tocqueville high school in Grasse, southwestern France

A student called Thomas told Nice Martin he saw the shooter gun down his headteacher and despite having shrapnel in his arm, he continued to try and calm the students down.

'He was incredibly cool,' Thomas said.

'I was too far away to hear what he was saying, but he remained calm even after being hit by a first shot.

'Despite the lead in the arm, he kept trying to bring him back to reason.'

Thomas said students were in floods of tears when they realised an attack was taking place and that he immediately recognised his schoolmate.

He told the French news outlet the gunman watched 'strange war videos'.

A second source said it appeared that two students had opened fire on the headmaster, who had been injured, adding that the suspects did not seem to be militants.

'One of the two was arrested and the second fled.

'There was panic and the students took refuge in the neighbouring supermarket,' said the source.

An eye-witness student in the school interviewed by France Inter radio said the students had heard a bang and taken cover under the tables.

'I went to close the windows and saw a guy who looked at me in the eyes.

'He seemed to be a student and not very big. He shot in the air and ran away,' the student said without giving his name.

Policemen stand near police vehicles in the southern French town of Grasse, on March 16, 2017

An armed French police officer controlling traffic after a gunman opened fire at a school

According to local journalist Soren Seelow, the gunman had researched The Columbine High School massacre - a school shooting that occurred on April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado.

As well as shooting and killing 12 students and one teacher, perpetrators Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold planted a fire bomb to divert firefighters.

Propane tanks converted to bombs were also placed in the cafeteria and 99 explosive devices and carbombs were also involved.

As well as the 12 victims, 21 were injured.

The pair subsequently committed suicide.

The French government issued a warning of a terrorist attack in the wake of the incident after the man in possession of several weapons fired at the headteacher.

It is understood the shooting was a targeted attack upon the headteacher, who in a statement welcoming students to the school said last year: 'Do not be afraid here - 850 pupils swim like fish in the waters of this establishment.'

He also said on the school's website: 'Parents and teachers alike, school, social and health care personnel are guidelines that guide the student in the stormy ocean of adolescence and try to avoid the reefs of incivility, the song of the sirens of absenteeism or the abyss of violence.'

People sit near the Tocqueville high school in the southern French town of Grasse after police locked the are down amid fears of a terror attack

Anti-terror police swarmed the school and arrived to warn neighbours to say indoors.

Despite the terror alert from the French government, Grasse town hall attempted to play down the situation saying terrorism was not a factor.

A spokeswoman told Le Dauphine: 'Two students shot at the headmaster.'

Minister Bernard Cazeneuve cut short a trip to the northern Somme area because of the Grasse shooting, as well as a letter bomb blast at the offices of the International Monetary Fund in Paris on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the education minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem has said she is on her way to the site.

The incident comes with France in a state of emergency after several militants attacks over the last year.

It is less than six weeks away from a presidential election in which security and fears of terrorism are among key issues.

Grasse, where a gunman is said to have opened fire on a headteacher inside the school

An envelope bomb exploded in the face of a worker at the International Monetary Fund's Paris office this morning.

A female IMF secretary suffered head and hand injuries in the blast, and damage to her eardrum.

IMF chief Christine Lagarde has branded the attack a 'cowardly act of violence'.

Paris police chief Michel Cadot revealed that IMF staff have received a number of threatening calls in recent days.

It comes after Greek radicals this week claimed responsibility for a parcel bomb that was sent to Germany's finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble.

French police are investigating a possible link between the Greek group and today's attack in Paris.