France suspends 'shooting' troops

Two teams of soldiers and five officers have been suspended from a French barracks where a soldier injured 17 civilians during a military show.

The moves comes just days after army chief of staff, Gen Bruno Cuche, resigned over the incident.

The people were hurt after one soldier used real bullets instead of blanks at a public display of military techniques in south-west France last week.

On Thursday, 10 people were reported to be still in hospital.

The youngest of the victims, a three-year-old boy who received bullet wounds to the heart and arm, was recovering from an operation in Toulouse, according to the AFP news agency.

The shooting occurred during a public demonstration of hostage-freeing techniques at a barracks in Carcassonne, in the Aude region.

The sergeant who fired the shots is being held in custody.

He has been charged with breach of security regulations and causing unintentional injuries and faces up to three years in prison if convicted.

It is thought he had held on to some live ammunition from a previous exercise, in breach of regulations, and had mistakenly loaded them into his assault rifle during the display.

The incident is reported to have infuriated President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has promised to seek explanations from the whole chain of command.