Year: 2022

Riots break out after ‘far-right’ shooting in Paris which left three dead News Briefing

Riots break out after ‘far-right’ shooting in Paris which left three dead

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Rioting broke out in Paris close to the scene of a racially-motivated mass shooting in which three people were killed and three others wounded.

Emmanuel Macron said the country’s Kurdish community had been the victims of a heinous attack, with his interior minister Gerald Darmanin saying the suspect was clearly targeting foreigners.

Gunshots rang out on Rue d’Enghien at about midday on Friday, creating panic on a street lined with small shops and cafes in the French capital’s busy 10th district.

Police fired teargas as darkness descended to drive back an angry crowd as projectiles were thrown at officers, rubbish bins and restaurant tables overturned, and cars damaged.

A 69-year-old man, named as William M, was arrested. Prosecutor Laure Beccuau said he had recently been freed from detention while awaiting trial for a sabre attack on a migrant camp in Paris a year ago.

He was convicted in June of committing violent acts with a weapon in 2016, and had lodged an appeal.

An investigating source said the assailant arrived in the area ‘armed with a gun and deliberately targeted an area full of immigrants, including recent arrivals sleeping rough’.

They added: ‘He threatened people in a hairdresser, a restaurant, and people close to the Ahmet-Kaya Kurdish cultural centre. He seemed intent on killing as many people as he could.’

A police officer stands behind a cordon on ‘Rue d’Enghien’ following a shooting (Picture: EPA)

Protestors clashed with French riot police (Picture: AFP via Getty)

Three people were killed in the attack (Picture: ABACA/Shutterstock)

Angry protestors face off towards French riot police after violent clashes broke out (Picture: Getty)

Protestors were mainly of the Kurdish Community voicing their concerns of feeling unprotected in France after the attack (Picture: Getty)

The motives of the gunman remain unclear (Picture: AFP via Getty)

Police with riot shields (Picture: Reuters)

Eyewitness Mehmet Dilek said he first heard gunshots and then cries from inside a barber’s shop opposite the cultural centre. Bystanders subdued the gunman as he reloaded, he added.

‘It might be shocking for someone who has never had a worry in their life. But we grew up under the threat of arms and bombs, this is how life is for us Kurds,’ he continued.

The shootings were a ‘terrible drama’, district mayor Alexandra Cordebard told reporters. One of those wounded had suffered life-threatening injuries, she said.

The shooting occurred close to a Kurdish cultural centre

French police and firefighters secure a street (Picture: Reuters)

Kurdish leaders called for better protection for their community, a theme for Kurds in France since the high profile killings of three Kurdish women a decade ago.

‘Kurds, wherever they live, should be able to live in peace and security,’ Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said on Twitter.

‘Now more than ever, Paris is by their side in these dark times.’

Julien Verplancke who works at another local restaurant, Chez Minna, said staff from the Kurdish restaurant emerged from the premise in tears after the shooting.

Several hours later, armed police were still guarding a security cordon as investigators combed the scene.

An investigation has been opened into murder, manslaughter and aggravated violence.

Salih Azad, a prominent figure from the Kurdish community in Marseille, said he knew one of the victims, a 26-year-old woman who had lived in Paris for several years.

‘She was well integrated socially and culturally,’ he said.

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