Eight people have sustained minor injuries after a man opened fire with an air gun near a nursery school in Lyon, in south-eastern France.
French police confirmed that the school was evacuated, but no children were injured.
A group of mothers arriving to collect their children appeared to have been targeted.
A hunt has been launched for the gunman, who fled after the shooting.
Security in schools and nurseries is a particularly sensitive issue after last week's school shooting in Germany, in which a teenager shot 15 people dead before killing himself.
Lyon city authorities have cancelled the city's carnival, which was supposed to start today, and closed off the neighbourhood where the shooting took place.
