France on high security alert after school shooting

Police block the street at scene of shooting accident in Toulouse, France, on March 19, 2012. Three children and an adult were killed in a shooting outside a Jewish school in the southwestern French city of Toulouse on Monday morning, local media reported, raising the toll up from three. (Xinhua)

French Interior Minister Claude Gueant had ordered "to strengthen surveillance" around Jewish schools in France, local media reported.

Shortly after the attack, the White House offered condolences and denounced the "unprovoked and outrageous" shooting.

"We were deeply saddened to learn of the horrific attack this morning against the teachers and students of a Jewish school in the French city of Toulouse," National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said in a statement.

"We join the government of France in condemning this unprovoked and outrageous act of violence in the strongest possible terms," he said.

The Israeli embassy in Paris said the bodies of all four victims would be flown to Israel for burial at the request of their families.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday called the lethal shooting attack a "savage crime" that "gunned down Jews, among them children."

"I think that we can't rule out that there was a strong, murderous anti-Semitic motive here," Netanyahu told members of his Likud party, according to a statement sent to Xinhua.

The prime minister said Israel will "do everything" to assist in the investigation.

In neighboring Belgium, Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo said the attack was a shameful act targeted at schools and ethnic groups. His government announced it would ramp up security at Jewish schools across the country.