Demonstrations erupted in Paris after a 69-year-old militant killed three members of the Kurdish community and seriously injured three others. Events are raging in the French capital as protesters gather at the site of the tragedy and clash with police forces.
A #Paris10alors que les enquêteurs et la police technique scientifique sont encore à l’œuvre sur la scène de la #fusiladedes individus attaquent violemment des policiers en transformant la rue en champs de bataille.
Tout notre soutien aux policiers qui rétablissent l’ordre. pic.twitter.com/srFzgEeQfZ— Matthieu Valet (@mvalet_officiel) December 23, 2022
Paris resembles a battlefield where dozens of policemen are wounded.
Police used tear gas to disperse a crowd of Kurdish demonstrators near a cultural center in central Paris, where a 69-year-old attacker killed three people this afternoon and three were injured. One of them is in critical condition, prosecutors said.
The incidents began when the crowd crashed into a cordon of security forces protecting French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, who had arrived on the scene. The security forces used tear gas against the protesters, who, in turn, threw objects in their direction, burned garbage cans and set up barricades.
Watch live: Protests are taking place at the scene of a shooting near a Kurdish community center in Paris in which three people were fatally shot – https://t.co/gMZligHlKO https://t.co/OlWwZsoqA9
— Sky News (@SkyNews) December 23, 2022
In the tenth arrondissement of Paris, a man opened fire at a Kurdish cultural center: “We saw an elderly white man go inside the cafeteria and start shooting, then he started shooting at the Kurdish cultural center, and then he went to a nearby hairdresser,” a restaurant employee told AFP .
“Full panic reigns, we locked ourselves inside,” the owner of one of the local stores told the Agence France-Presse. According to her, shooting started seven or eight times. As the head of the administration of the 10th district Alexandra Cordebar, the suspect was wounded during the shooting.
An eyewitness said that the man took a gun out of his bag and opened fire indiscriminately at people. Investigators said it could have been a racist crime.
It is reported that during the arrest, the suspect did not resist the police, who were able to take the weapon from him. According to law enforcement officers, the man was recently in prison. Laure Beccou, the chief prosecutor of Paris, said he had just been released after attacking tents in a Parisian refugee camp with a sword a year ago.
The attack on the camp took place in the Bercy district in the east of Paris on December 8, 2021. Why the man has already been released from prison is not yet specified. French media report that the home of the shooter is being searched.
French President Emmanuel Macron, a few hours after the attack, tweeted: “The Kurds of France are under a heinous attack in the heart of Paris. My thoughts are with the people who are fighting for their lives, with their families and loved ones. Thank you to the security forces for their bravery and coolness.”
Les Kurdes de France ont été la cible d’une odieuse attaque au cœur de Paris. Pensées aux victimes, aux personnes qui luttent pour vivre, à leurs familles et proches. Reconnaissance à nos forces de l’ordre pour leur courage et leur sang-froid.
— Emmanuel Macron (@Emmanuel Macron) December 23, 2022
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