PARIS, Oct 23 (Reuters) – A gunman opened fire from a car west of Paris, killing one person and wounding four others including a 12-year-old girl on Friday, French authorities said.
“We would like to thank our law enforcement agencies, which have already taken the suspect into custody. The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office has taken over the case,” President Emmanuel Macron said in a post on X, expressing deep sorrow over the killing.
The shooting comes at a moment of particular tension in France, after nationwide protests turned violent last Saturday and ahead of possible unrest this coming weekend. Some on the far right had blamed immigration for last weekend’s violence.
The anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office said its investigation included looking at whether the shooting was a terrorist act or if it were racially or religiously motivated.
Ali Rabeh, the mayor of the town of Trappes west of Paris, told BFMTV that a man had fired shoots from his car and “appeared to be firing at random and seemed intent on carrying out a massacre”.
Rabeh said the gunman was driving on a road from Trappes to neighbouring La Verriere and lived in a nearby town. Broadcaster BFM reported that the wounded 12-year-old girl had been hit eight times.
Nicolas Dainville, the mayor of La Verriere, described the suspect as “an individual residing in Plaisir and of a European type.” Rabeh said two of the victims were of African and North African origin, respectively, and did not provide details about the backgrounds of the other victims.
(Reporting by Juliette Jabkhiro, Dominique Vidalon and Zhifan Liu; Editing by Makini Brice, Crispian Balmer, Peter Graff)
