Three Killed, Three Injured in a Suspected Racist Attack in Paris
NEW DELHI, Dec 23: In what is suspected to be a racist attack, a 69-year-old gunman opened fire at a Kurdish cultural centre and a hairdressing salon in Paris on Friday, killing three people and injuring three others, the police said.
The shots shortly before midday (1100 GMT) caused panic in rue d’Enghien in the trendy 10th district of the capital, a bustling area of shops and restaurants that is home to a large Kurdish population. News of the shooting set nerves jangling in a city that has been repeatedly targeted by Islamist terror groups since 2015.
Witnesses said the gunman, described by police as white and known for two previous attempted murders, initially targeted the Kurdish cultural centre before entering a nearby hairdressing salon where he was arrested by police.
“We saw an old white man enter, then start shooting in the Kurdish cultural centre, then he went to the hairdresser’s next door,” a restaurant worker said. Another local resident said, “There were people panicking, shouting to the police and pointing to the salon ‘he’s in there, he’s in there, go in’.”
He said he saw two people on the floor of the salon with leg wounds. The Kurdish community centre, called Centre Ahmet Kaya, is used by a charity that works to integrate the Kurdish population in the Paris region.
Often described as the world’s largest people without a state, the Kurds are Muslim, but non-Arab ethnic group spread across Syria, Iraq and Iran, which has faced persecution and violence. Some members of the Kurdish centre could be seen weeping and hugging each other for comfort. “It’s starting again. You aren’t protecting us. We’re being killed!” one of them cried to nearby police.
The gunman was described by police sources as “Caucasian”, of French nationality and known for two previous attempted murders in 2016 and 2021. His motives remain unclear, but his identity and his target immediately raised suspicions that the shooting could have been racially motivated.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin has repeatedly warned about the danger of violent far-right groups in France. Mathilde Panot, parliamentary head of the hard-left France Unbowed political party, immediately pointed the finger at the far-right, calling it a “racist attack.”
The shooter was injured and “has been taken to hospital,” the mayor of 10th district, Alexandra Cordebard, said at the scene where police have sealed off surrounding roads. “There are three dead, one person in intensive care and two people with serious injuries, and the suspect, who was arrested, has also been injured, notably to the face,” Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau told reporters.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said an investigation had been opened and that “a man aged between 60 and 70 has been arrested and is in custody.” “His identity is in the process of being checked,” it added.
(Manas Dasgupta)
