Terror Probe Opened After Paris Suburb Shooting Kills One, Wounds Four
A gunman fired an automatic weapon from a car at three sites in Trappes and La Verrière on Friday morning. France's anti-terror prosecutor has taken over the case and is investigating a possible racist motive.
One person is dead and four are wounded after a gunman fired from a car in two Paris suburbs Friday morning. A suspect has been arrested.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuéez said shots were fired at three separate sites in Trappes and La Verrière, in the Yvelines district about 20 miles west of Paris. The suspect fired what appeared to be “a military-grade weapon, or at least an automatic weapon,” he said.
Trappes Mayor Ali Rabeh told BFM TV the gunman seemed to fire at random and wanted “to cause carnage.” He said the shooter opened fire at a doctor’s surgery, a children’s playground and a petrol station, and called it a miracle that more people were not killed.
The person killed was of African origin, Rabeh said. Among the wounded are a 12-year-old girl, whose condition is stable, and two men, aged 29 and 49, who are in critical condition. One of the men is of North African origin.
France’s national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office has taken over the investigation. It opened the case as murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise, with the added circumstance that the attack was committed because of the victims’ actual or supposed race, ethnicity, nation or religion.
No motive has been established. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said security forces have been fully mobilized. President Emmanuel Macron said he was deeply saddened. “Our thoughts are with the victims, their families, and all the residents of Yvelines. The nation stands with them in this terrible ordeal,” he wrote on X.
The shooting came as France braced for another day of protests Saturday over the cost of living. The government is deploying about 70,000 security personnel, and the Louvre and other museums will close.
