It was almost 9 a.m. when a 45-year-old man entered a Pôle Emploi agency in Valence, in the Drôme region, and shot and killed an employee.
He then went to a recycling company in Guilherand-Granges (Ardèche), on the other bank of the Rhône, where he seriously injured another woman, the company's HRD.
She passed away shortly after.
As the suspected gunman fled by car, crossing a bridge in the direction of Valence, his vehicle crashed into a police car trying to intercept it.
The man, unknown to the police, was then arrested.
His motivations were not immediately known.
The Minister of Labor Élisabeth Borne, is due to go there in the afternoon.
The 900 Pôle Emploi agencies will be closed to the public on Friday and a minute of silence will be observed by the agents.