A French MP has shot a woman dead and then killed himself, apparently because he lost his mayoralty eight months ago, according to BBC.

Jean-Marie Demange, 65, a member of the UMP party, had been mayor of Thionville for 13 years. Friends told AFP news agency he became distraught at losing.

Prosecutor Jean-Francois Mailhes said the relationship with the 43-year-old woman was uncertain, but AFP reported that they were lovers.

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The speaker said he was saddened by the "gesture of despair."

Bernard Accoyer expressed his "profound sadness" at the killings.

AFP reported that Mr Demange, who was a member of President Nicolas Sarkozy`s centre-right UMP party, was in the middle of a divorce.

He had also taken his loss of the mayoralty in Thionville, a town of 43,000 in eastern France, as a personal failure, AFP said.

Mr Demange was a member of the parliament`s foreign affairs commission.