Three dead and three injured in Paris shooting, reports say

 

Three dead and three injured in Paris shooting, reports say

 

Man aged 69 arrested after reportedly opening fire on a group of people at a Kurdish cultural centre

 

Jon Henley in Paris

@jonhenley

Fri 23 Dec 2022 13.57 GMT

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/23/dead-injured-paris-shooting-reports

 

Three people were killed and another three have been wounded, including one in a critical condition, in a shooting at a Kurdish cultural centre in Paris, French authorities have said.

 

The newspaper Le Parisien reported that a 69-year-old man opened fire on a group of people at the Ahmet-Kaya centre on Rue d’Enghien in the 10th arrondissement on Friday morning.

 

Shots were also fired at a hairdresser’s and a restaurant in the street, the arrondissement’s mayor, Alexandra Cordebard, told BFM TV. The suspect was wounded in the face and was taken to hospital, prosecutors said.

 

They said police had arrested the alleged gunman, who had a prior police record, and seized a weapon soon after the shooting. According to Le Parisien, the man – reportedly a retired train driver – had been released from prison on 12 December after an attack with a sword last year on migrants living in tents.

 

The suspect was also arrested in 2016 for attempted manslaughter and 2019 for illegal weapons possession, the newspaper added, citing an unnamed police source as saying he told officers during his arrest on Friday he “did not like Kurds”.

 

Laure Beccuau, the Paris prosecutor, did not immediately confirm the suspect’s criminal record, saying it was still being examined. An investigation had been opened for murder, voluntary manslaughter and aggravated violence, she told reporters.

 

Beccuau said France’s national anti-terrorism prosecution service had visited the scene but there was at present no evidence to suggest it would take over the case. A possible racist motive would “obviously be part of the investigation”, she added.

 

The French prime minister, Élisabeth Borne, described the attack as a “vile act”, expressing her gratitude to police and emergency services for their rapid response and her sympathy with the victims’ families.

 

The Paris mayor, Anne Hidalgo, said psychological assistance would be made available to people affected by the incident and the French interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, said he would return to Paris to “visit the scene of this dramatic shooting”.

 

One witness, a shopkeeper in the street, told Agence France-Presse that seven or eight shots had been fired. “It was just complete panic – everyone locked themselves in,” the woman said.

 

The owner of a restaurant in the street said they had seen “an old white man enter the cultural centre and open fire. Then he went into the hairdressing salon next door.”

 

Paris police tweeted that an operation was under way and asked people to avoid the area, which is close to a number of busy shopping streets and the Grand Rex, often described as Europe’s biggest cinema.

 

France experienced a string of deadly attacks by Islamic extremists in 2015 and 2016, and remains on alert for terrorism-related violence.