The Union of Jewish student in France (UEJF) has said that the "normalisation of the extreme right" in France should be considered after three children and an adult were gunned down at a Jewish school in Toulouse yesterday.

Elie Petit, vice president of the UEJF, told the Today programme's Justin Webb that there is a "real solidarity" but also shock as people come to terms with the attack.

"Attacking children is one of the most awful things", he said "and that is what people feel first not that they are Jewish but that they are children".

But he said that while the killer might be "deranged" racism and anti-semitic sentiment is something that has to be taken into account because it is something that has been present in the climate of France for the last few years.

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