Three dead in shooting in Paris

Three dead in shooting in Paris 69-year-old suspected perpetrator arrested  

 

Of:  

 

Anna Sjögren,  

Oskar Forsberg  

 

Published: Today 12.35  

 

Updated: Less than 20 min ago  

 

NEWS  

 

Three people have died and several have been injured in a shooting in central Paris.

  

The shooting took place at a Kurdish cultural center. 

  

The police are strengthening surveillance of premises with a Kurdish connection in the area. 

  

The shooting took place in the 10th arrondissement in central Paris.

  

At least three people have died according to French media. Three more people are said to be injured, one of them seriously, according to the newspaper Le Monde. 

  

According to witnesses, between seven and eight shots were heard.

   

People testify to a panic-like atmosphere at the scene. 

 

- It is total panic, we have locked ourselves in, says a shop owner to the AFP news agency. 

  

Two people have died and several have been injured in a shooting in central Paris. Photo: Lewis Joly/AP

  

Saber attack  

 

A suspected shooter has been arrested, the police report. According to several French media, it is a man aged 69. According to the channel TF 1 Info, he allegedly tried to escape into a barbershop before he was arrested.  

 

According to the newspaper Le Parisien, the man should be well known to the police. He is said to have been released from prison on December 12.  

 

There he had just served a sentence for a previous violent crime. 

 

He allegedly attacked people in a migrant camp a year ago.

   

That time he was armed with a saber. 

  

Police are asking people to stay away from the area so police can work undisturbed. 

 

Please stay away  

 

The shooting took place near a Kurdish cultural center. A police source tells TF 1 Info that an order has gone out on the police radio to strengthen security at all premises with a Kurdish connection in the area.  

The incident is being investigated, among other things, as murder, writes the TV channal BFM. 

 

The motive for the shooting is currently unknown, but the suspected shooter has previously been arrested for an attack on a migrant camp in Paris. The prosecutor is now investigating whether there may be racist motives behind the act.  

 

In a post on Twitter, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo thanked the police for their quick intervention.  

 

“My thoughts go out to the victims and their families. We stand by your side," she writes in her tweet.  

 

Later in the afternoon and evening, the scene became chaotic and the police had to fire tear gas. 

 

French police and fire brigade on scene after the shooting. Photo: SARAH MEYSSONNIER / Reuters