A gunman has killed one person and wounded five others, including a 12-year-old girl, in a possible Islamophobic “terrorist crime” in the Paris suburbs, authorities said.
An unidentified 39-year-old male suspect was taken into custody shortly after the attacks in the towns of Trappes and nearby La Verriere outside the capital on Friday.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said the suspect fired at a children’s playground, a fuel station and a medical centre, the Reuters news agency reported. Three of the victims, including the 12-year-old girl, suffered life-threatening injuries, he said.
Nunez said the attack lasted less than 15 minutes and that the gunman appeared to have used “a military-grade weapon, or at least an automatic weapon”. Prosecutors were treating it as a “terrorist crime” and investigating whether it was racially or religiously motivated, he said.
Trappes Mayor Ali Rabeh said the gunman “appeared to be firing at random and seemed intent on carrying out a massacre”.
“This was a terrorist attack with racist, likely Islamophobic, overtones,” he said.
Rabeh earlier said two of the victims were of African and North African origins.
French President Emmanuel Macron said national antiterrorism prosecutors had taken over the case.
“Our thoughts go out to the victims, their families, and all the residents of Yvelines. In this terrible ordeal, the Nation stands by their side,” Macron posted on X.
Separately, security was tightened ahead of protests that are expected across the country this weekend. Many of the demonstrations have been banned following burning and looting at protests last weekend.
Nunez said France would deploy 70,000 officers nationwide on Saturday, along with helicopters, armoured vehicles and water cannon. In addition, elite police units will help secure public buildings, such as city halls, in a “highly mobile” security operation, he said.
Protests last week caused chaos, with people setting fires, storming public buildings, smashing shop windows, looting and clashing with police, in France’s most violent unrest in years.
Far-right politicians say the government has not cracked down hard enough on protesters, while left-wing groups say the security around demonstrations violates rights.
Demonstrators plan to take to the streets again on Saturday to denounce the high cost of living. Students, members of the Confederation of Labour, a national trade union and activists from the “yellow vest” movement, whose demonstrations against social injustice shook France in 2018 and 2019, are all set to join.
