A gunman firing from a car killed one person and wounded five — including a 12-year-old girl shot eight times — in the Paris suburbs Friday, in what the French president branded a “racist terrorist attack”.
The man was “firing at random, wanting to cause a bloodbath” as he drove through the working-class town of Trappes southwest of Paris and neighbouring La Verriere, Trappes mayor Ali Rabeh said.
Most of the victims were from foreign backgrounds and prosecutors are investigating whether the acts targeted the “real or supposed race, ethnicity, nationality or religion” of the victims.
“What happened here today was a racist terrorist attack,” said French President Emmanuel Macron, visiting Trappes later.
“This is a turning point because it is the first time there has been a terrorist act aimed at killing our compatriots and our children for the colour of their skin or what their religion is thought to be,” he said.
“We must not yield anything to the ideas that are taking root in the Republic that could justify such behaviour.”
The 12-year-old girl shot eight times was “seriously wounded” but in a stable condition, the mayor of La Verriere, Nicolas Dainville, told AFP.
Police arrested the alleged shooter — a 39-year-old man, according to a source familiar with the case — in nearby Coignieres.
Officers found him in possession of a submachine gun and tear-gas grenades, according to a police source.
He had also booby-trapped his flat with three gas canisters and electric wires “connected to a timer”, according to anti-terrorism prosecutors.
Prosecutors said they had opened an investigation for “murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise”.
– Bursts of gunfire –
Rabeh said the man was firing sporadically from his car and that the person killed was “of African origin”.
One of the wounded, “in critical condition, is of north African origin”, he added.
It was “objectively a racist, probably Islamophobic attack,” the mayor said, calling for national unity as the toll rose from an earlier count of four wounded.
Dainville said that two of the wounded in his town — cleaners attending to a school Friday morning when the shooter got out of his car to open fire — were of African origin.
Laurent Nunez, France’s interior minister, travelled to the two affected towns. He called the shooting “clearly a terrorist crime”.
A police source told AFP that the man had fired in bursts from his vehicle around 10:30 am (0830 GMT).
Adel, a resident of Trappes, about 20 kilometres (13 miles) west of Paris, said his “heart was broken” as he learned the victims might have been targeted for their race.
“I’m North African and it’s frightening for everyone who has the same background,” the 50-year-old told AFP.
Samy, another resident, told AFP he had seen a body on the ground from his window.
His mother, he said, saw a grey Renault Clio car speeding by and heard “loud bangs”.
– ‘Terrible ordeal’ –
Writing on X, Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said the case was “very serious” and that “all resources of the security forces and the judiciary are fully mobilised”.
Macron earlier in the day said “the nation is standing with” the victims of this “terrible ordeal”.
The shooting came with France on edge following last weekend’s riots on the sidelines of mass protests over the cost of living, some of the worst street violence in recent years.
More protests are expected this weekend, but police will be out in force after a week of overnight curfews put in place in cities throughout the country.
