Gruesome killings in psychiatric hospital horrify France

France’s health minister convened an urgent meeting today to address security at hospitals after the gruesome killings of two psychiatric hospital workers that have shaken the country.

Philippe Douste-Blazy called for greater co-ordination between hospitals and police after the discovery yesterday of the bodies of a nurse and a nurse’s aide - one beheaded, the other with the throat slit – at a hospital in the southwestern town of Pau. Officials said the head of the nurse was found on top of a TV set at the hospital.