One person has been killed and four others injured, including a 12-year-old girl, in a shooting in Trappes west of Paris which officials suspect may have been motivated by Islamophobic hatred.
The gunman allegedly opened fire from a car as he drove through the town, targeting a petrol station, a medical centre and a children’s playground with an automatic weapon. Police arrested the 39-year-old suspect before he could hurt anyone else.
President Emmanuel Macron described the incident as a terrorist and racist attack, saying the victims had been targeted because of their religion and the colour of their skin.
“What happened today marks a turning point for the Republic and our country. What happened today was a terrorist and racist attack,” Mr Macron told reporters.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said earlier that the shooting was “clearly a terrorist crime” and an “extremely serious act”.
The anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office, known as PNAT, is investigating whether the attack was racially or religiously motivated. It can take over criminal cases that meet the criteria for terrorism, including violence inspired by far-right ideas.
Trappes shooting suspect arrested
Ali Rabeh, the mayor of Trappes, said the attack was “objectively a racist attack, probably Islamophobic”. He said two of the victims were of African and North African origin, but did not give details about the backgrounds of the others.
“The people targeted today could just as easily have been my mother, my brothers or my sisters-in-law,” Mr Rabeh said.
The injured girl was reportedly hit eight times and was in a serious condition. Images showed the suspect’s car riddled with bullets.
Nicolas Dainville, mayor of nearby La Verriere, said the suspect lived in Plaisir, also in the Yvelines district, and was “of a European type”.
The shooting happened amid heightened tension in France, following violent nationwide protests the previous Saturday and ahead of further demonstrations. Mr Rabeh called for collective condemnation of rhetoric that “ideologically arms those capable of carrying out such acts”.
