17 wounded because of accidental using of live ammo

[Hardtman]

Sarkozy vows punishment over live fire accident - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

A french soldier used live rounds instead of blancs in a demonstration of military tactics.
A group of soldier demonstrated a mock hostage-situation, and one of the participants had for some reason live ammo loaded, resulting in 17 wounded, 15 of them civilian.
This soldier is said to be very experienced, some sources even say he's considered elite.

How can such happen? Especially with experienced soldiers? Even if the wrong ammo wasn't his fault, how does he manage to get around 20 rounds off without noticing that there are bullets coming out?
If have yet to find a source that states what kind of weapon he used, but when would a soldier fire off 20 rounds in such a short amount of time?

[[T]Terranova7]

Regardless of what he was doing... why was he firing at the crowd in the first place?

[M1126 Stryker]

Yay logistics! Somebody was half asleep when doing their job.

[georgehu2007]

What happened was just absurd. Simple rule is you NEVER fire at the crowd even if you have blanks

[[T]Terranova7]

Originally Posted by georgehu2007

What happened was just absurd. Simple rule is you NEVER fire at the crowd even if you have blanks

I agree, during my years spent in MCJROTC, and my year in the DEP I've familiarized myself with four very strict weapon safety rules

- Treat every weapon as if it were loaded
- Keep your weapon on safe until you are ready to fire
- Keep your finger straight and off the trigger until you are ready to fire
- Don't point at anything you do not intend to shoot

Not sure if that's the particular order, but it all goes something like that.

[Viper5]

Ultimate Facepalm

Sounds like he was just being a straight up moron. Lucky no one was killed.

[[R-DEV]bosco]

Firing in the crowd's direction is part of the presentation they were doing

They were using blanks

The Sergeant in question simply used a mag with live rounds he still had in a pouch from another exercise (by accident)

[Viper5]

If he's using a magazine he's prolly using a rifle.

If he's using a rifle in a hostage-drill, its prolly on semi-auto.

So out of sheer curiosity, did he not realize after, I dunno, the 10th guy screaming and yelling after he shoots that he might want to stop?

[Begbie]

Originally Posted by [T]Terranova7

Regardless of what he was doing... why was he firing at the crowd in the first place?

This is the most important point here. Shockingly retarded.

If I understood correctly these were paratroopers?

Any knowlege how many bullets he actually fired? Its entirely possible that multiple injuries came from the same bullet and shrapnel.

So 3 quick bursts in full auto causing the injuries can add up.

But I dont know about 5.56 but in 7.62 you can first of all hear but most importantly FEEL the difference between blanks and live rounds. So immediatly when firing the first burst he should have noticed the difference. Or did he fire all ~8-17 bullets at once? Which would be very odd.

Why did he even have access to live ammunition on a day like that? Do they trust their soldiers to keep live ammo when they dont actually need it? Not where im from. Or did somebody distribute him the wrong magazine. So many things that dont add up here.

[gazzthompson]

if it was for show maybe he had a bit of full auto action to make the show more exciting ?