France probes terror motive after man shoots dead Tunisian neighbour

NICE, France: French prosecutors Monday were probing a terror motive after a man who had posted racist videos shot dead his Tunisian neighbour and badly wounded a Turkish citizen in the south of the country.

The shooting late Saturday in Puget-sur-Argens in the Var region comes after a Malian man was stabbed to death in April in a mosque, also in southern France, as concern grows over hate crimes against Muslims.

The shooting was initially investigated by regional prosecutors as a suspected murder motivated by the victim´s ethnicity or religion. But French national anti-terror prosecutors (PNAT) announced Monday that they would be taking over the investigation.

The suspected killer, a 53-year-old who is French, fled the scene in a car but was arrested not far away after his partner alerted police. He posted videos with racist content before and after the shooting late on Saturday, according to regional prosecutor Pierre Couttenier. The Tunisian man killed, believed to be 35 years old, was shot five times. The Turkish citizen, 25, was wounded in the hand and hospitalised, the prosecutor said.