Eight die in Paris suburb shooting

Police officers in Nanterre, France, watch an emergency helicopter near the shooting scene.

NANTERRE, France -- Eight people were killed and 30 others injured when a man opened fire with an automatic weapon at the end of a routine weekly meeting at a town hall in the Paris suburb of Nanterre.

Members of the city council were among those killed in the shooting, which happened at 1:15 a.m. (0115 GMT) on Wednesday, emergency officials said.

The shooting suspect was taken into custody, and authorities sealed off the area, Louis Carzou, of French LCI television, told CNN. Scores of police and firefighters -- including a contingent of New York City firemen currently visiting the Paris area -- were brought in to assist the victims.

At least 12 of the victims were badly injured, Carzou said. France's internal security minister and Prime Minister Lionel Jospin rushed to the scene. Jospin called it an act of "raging madness."

Carzou said the New York firefighters had been invited to France as a show of solidarity after the September 11 attacks for a one-week visit. On this particular night, the New York firefighters had agreed to go into the field to work with the French firefighters, he said.

"We were about to leave when suddenly a man got up and started shooting straight ahead," Nanterre Mayor Jacqueline Frayasse told The Associated Press. (More eyewitness accounts)

The attacker used at least two automatic pistols, and about 50 bullets were scattered inside the meeting room, rescue worker Laurent Vibert told AP.

Vibert said the suspect was apparently a member of the Green Party who was known for strange behaviour at meetings.

Yves Bot, a state prosecutor in Nanterre, told AP the gunman knew the people he was firing at. Police said the man did not make any comment following the attack.

The bloody rampage took place as some 40 people attending the meeting were putting on their coats to leave. Nanterre is a middle-class neighbourhood near a business district of western Paris.

Rising crime has risen to the top of France's political agenda ahead of presidential elections in the spring, the Associated Press reports.

The killing of two officers during an armed robbery in a Paris suburb in October sparked nationwide strikes by thousands of police officers, demanding more pay and better equipment.

Also in October, a masked gunman opened fire in the central French city of Tours, killing four people.