A gunman shot dead four people, including three children, at a Jewish school in France’s southwestern city of Toulouse on Monday before escaping on a motorbike.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy rushed to the scene and called the shooting that occurred at the Ozar Hatorah school a national tragedy.

He then announced that the terrorism alert in the region around Toulouse had been raised to scarlet or the highest level.

In Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the shooting “a savage crime.” Netanyahu said he is confident that the French government will exert its best efforts to find the killer.

Monday’s shooting came just a few days after three soldiers were killed by a gunman who also escaped on a motorbike nearby Toulouse.