Paris shooting: Three dead and several injured in the attack
Paris shooting: French interior minister to travel to shooting scene
A gunman opened fire in central Paris, killing three people and injuring three others.
The attacker targeted a Kurdish cultural center and shot dead members of the local community. A possible racist motive is being investigated.
The 69-year-old suspect was quickly arrested and it soon emerged that he had recently been released from prison.
Clashes later took place between the police and a group that had gathered at the site after the attack.
Footage showed people setting fires in the middle of the street and smashing car windows, as police in riot gear responded by spraying tear gas.
The riots occurred after a man described by witnesses as tall, white and elderly shot dead two men and a woman on Rue d’Enghien in the 10th arrondissement of Paris.
Of the three injured, one was in critical condition and the others were being treated for serious injuries.
There is no confirmed motive for the shooting, but Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said the suspect had previously been accused of racist violence.
The incident – in which he attacked tents at a migrant camp in Paris with a sword – took place in Bercy on December 8, 2021. It was not clear why he was recently released.
French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, who traveled to the scene earlier, said there was currently no known link between the suspects and “far-right” groups.
Local mayor Alexandra Cordebard said the gunman was also wounded in the shooting and that three places were under fire: a Kurdish community center, a restaurant and a hair salon.
“We were walking down the street and we heard shots,” witness Ali Dalek told the BBC. “We turned around and saw people running left and right.
“And then, five or six minutes later, because we know people who work in the hair salon, we went in and saw that they had arrested a guy.
Another witness, a saleswoman, told AFP that she had locked herself out. She said she heard seven or eight gunshots.
Police eventually apprehended the suspect without resistance and allegedly recovered the weapon used in the attack. Prosecutors said they had opened a homicide investigation.
The Kurdish Democratic Council in France (CDF-K), which runs the stricken Ahmet-Kaya Kurdish center, condemned the attack in a brief statement.
Le Monde newspaper quoted center spokesman Agit Polat as saying that French authorities had “once again” failed to protect Kurds living in Paris.
French President Emmanuel Macron said the capital’s Kurdish community had been the “target of a heinous attack” and praised police for their “courage”.
The shooting comes nearly 10 years after the January 2013 murder of three Kurdish activists in Paris, including a co-founder of the militant nationalist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
A Turkish man was charged with the murders but died in 2016 before being tried.
The CDF-K referred to the historic case in a statement, saying Friday’s attack occurred “shortly before the 10th anniversary of the triple assassination of Kurdish activists in Paris on January 9, 2013.” So far, no official link has been established between the two incidents.
A meeting between Laurent Nunez, the Paris police chief, and leaders of the Kurdish community is to be held on Saturday morning, the force said in a statement.
