delusionofgrandeur

It appears to be flashing all over the newswires that an Israeli Border Policeman has shot himself at Ben Gurion airport in Israel as French President Nicholas Sarkozy and his new wife Carla Bruni were leaving to return to France.

The incident occurred during a farewell ceremony in the presence of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Israeli President Shimon Peres. French bodyguards rushed the French president and his wife onto the waiting aircraft wile the situation was secured.

The Israeli PM and President returned to Sarkozy’s aircraft after the incident to bid final farewell prior to the flight leaving.

Update: Jerusalem post reports the man shot was a Border Policeman. Also noted is a comment from Israeli policeman Micky Rosenfeld who denied reports that there had been an assassination attempt on the French president.

Update: Although it’s still not 100% clear as to whether it was an accident or suicide, the Border Policeman has now been confirmed as having died from his injuries.

Update: BBC News has a video clip of Sarkozy and Bruni being hurried on to the plane although Sarkozy appears to stop for a moment to wave a brief apollogy for leaving so suddenly. Most of the security ’suits’ appear to be reaching for weapons including one ‘heavy’ who looked like he just might have an ‘automatic briefcase’.

Tags: accident, airport, ben gurion, bruni, israel, olmert, sarkozy, shimon perez, shooting, suicide

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 24th, 2008 at 2:59 pm and is filed under News, Politics.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.