Antiterrorism prosecutors investigating motive of assault that critically wounded 5, together with a 12-year-old woman.
Printed On 23 Oct 2026
A gunman has killed one particular person and wounded 5 others, together with a 12-year-old woman, in a potential Islamophobic “terrorist crime” within the Paris suburbs, authorities stated.
An unidentified 39-year-old male suspect was taken into custody shortly after the assaults within the cities of Trappes and close by La Verriere exterior the capital on Friday.
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Inside Minister Laurent Nunez stated the suspect fired at a youngsters’s playground, a gas station and a medical centre, the Reuters information company reported. Three of the victims, together with the 12-year-old woman, suffered life-threatening accidents, he stated.
Nunez stated the assault lasted lower than quarter-hour and that the gunman appeared to have used “a military-grade weapon, or at the very least an automated weapon”. Prosecutors have been treating it as a “terrorist crime” and investigating whether or not it was racially or religiously motivated, he stated.
Trappes Mayor Ali Rabeh stated the gunman “seemed to be firing at random and appeared intent on finishing up a bloodbath”.
“This was a terrorist assault with racist, probably Islamophobic, overtones,” he stated.
Rabeh earlier stated two of the victims have been of African and North African origins.
French President Emmanuel Macron stated nationwide antiterrorism prosecutors had taken over the case.
“Our ideas exit to the victims, their households, and all of the residents of Yvelines. On this horrible ordeal, the Nation stands by their facet,” Macron posted on X.
Stress forward of Saturday protests
Individually, security was tightened forward of protests which might be anticipated throughout the nation this weekend. Most of the demonstrations have been banned following burning and looting at protests final weekend.
Nunez stated France would deploy 70,000 officers nationwide on Saturday, together with helicopters, armoured autos and water cannon. As well as, elite police models will assist safe public buildings, equivalent to metropolis halls, in a “extremely cell” safety operation, he stated.
Protests final week induced chaos, with folks setting fires, storming public buildings, smashing store home windows, looting and clashing with police, in France’s most violent unrest in years.
Far-right politicians say the federal government has not cracked down laborious sufficient on protesters, whereas left-wing teams say the safety round demonstrations violates rights.
Demonstrators plan to take to the streets once more on Saturday to denounce the excessive value of dwelling. College students, members of the Confederation of Labour, a nationwide commerce union and activists from the “yellow vest” motion, whose demonstrations towards social injustice shook France in 2018 and 2019, are all set to hitch.
