Two women and a man dumping rubbish were shot dead by a former police officer in a case being dubbed “recycling rage”.
Norbert Darriet, 64, had been reported for taking objects from skips at a recycling plant at Chateaubernard, a village near Cognac in south-west France.
Known as an obsessive collector of bric-a-brac and antiques, he was refused entry to the dump by an employee on Monday and drove off - returning with a double-barrelled shotgun.
Police believe he then shot two women employed by Calitom, a rubbish recycling company, and a man who merely happened to be there.
It is believed the three victims died instantly.
Investigators say the former policeman then turned the gun on himself and pulled the trigger, but failed to kill himself.
Alerted by a man who arrived at the scene a few minutes after the killings, police and ambulance officers found the bodies lying in pools of blood.
Darriet was taken to hospital, suffering from serious gunshot wounds.
According to the French newspaper Sud Ouest, Darriet had told employees at the plant that “if one day he was taken to court for taking objects, he would shoot himself beforehand”.
An employee said: “Tension had been rising for several weeks.” - Daily Mail