A depressed French gendarme shot dead his superior officer after a heated argument, then killed his own twin children before turning the gun on himself in a Paris military base.
The 43-year-old gunman, who worked as a driver in the gendarmerie, used his personal weapon in the shooting, officials said.
His service weapon had been taken off him 'with his agreement because he was having psychiatric treatment,' General Gerard Remy, the head of the gendarmerie in the Paris region, told a press conference.
'His superiors were aware of a conflict between the two men,' said Mr Remy.
The gendarme killed the officer and then went back to his lodgings in the base and shot his 11-year-old twins - a boy and a girl - before committing suicide, a police source said.
Gendarmes in France are paramilitary personnel who carry out police duties among the civilian population.
President Nicolas Sarkozy rushed to the scene along with Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie and Defence Minister Herve Morin.
Officials did not say what sparked the incident, which happened around midday in a gendarme barracks in the southern Paris suburb of Malakoff.
Police did not name either the victims or the gunman.
The dead officer was also aged 43 and was married with two children.
