A gunman firing from a vehicle in a Paris suburb Friday killed one person and wounded several others, including a 12-year-old girl, in what French authorities suspect may have been a racially motivated attack.
France’s National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s office took charge of the case and Interior Minister Laurent Nunez spoke of a “terrorist crime”.
A suspect was arrested and taken into police custody, police said.
President Emmanuel Macron said it was “a racist terror attack“ and that the suspect’s statements suggested it was premeditated.
“These people were targeted because of their skin colour or perceived religion, and for no other reason,” Mr Macron said.
“There is no place for this in France.”
Mr Nunez said the shootings happened at three separate locations in the towns of Trappes and La Verriere, near Paris, and that they took less than 15 minutes in total.
“A deadly rampage took place this morning,” he told reporters in Trappes.
According to Mr Nunez, the attacker fatally shot one person and wounded five others, three of them very seriously, with their lives in danger.
Mr Nunez said the attack was considered a “terrorist crime” by prosecutors, with a possible racist motive.
He praised the five officers from the anti-crime brigade who stopped the suspect.
“I commend them for their swift response,” he said.
Aurore Berge, the minister for gender equality and fight against discriminations, said the 12-year-old girl was very seriously injured.
“If a racist motive is established, I hope that the whole nation will stand alongside the residents of Trappes, La Verrière, and the victims.
“We cannot tolerate even the slightest racist remark in the French Republic,” she said.
Asked about reports that the suspect’s home had been booby-trapped with gas cylinders, Mr Nunez said: “We have heard those reports.
“The investigation will establish the facts.”
Mr Nunez said the suspect fired “what appears to have been a military-grade weapon, or at least an automatic weapon”.
Trappes Mayor Ali Rabeh said the gunman appeared to have fired relatively randomly, targeting passers-by at several locations including a playground.
“This is probably one of the first attempted mass killings motivated by Islamophobia and racism,” he told reporters.
“This was a terrorist attack with racist, likely Islamophobic, overtones.”
Mr Rabeh previously said the person killed was of African origin, while one of those critically wounded was of North African origin.
France’s National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s office said it opened a criminal investigation into several offences, including “murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise with the aggravating circumstance that the act was committed on account of the victim’s actual or perceived membership of a particular race, ethnic group, nationality or religion”.
The shooting happened as France braces for another day of protests against the high cost of living on Saturday, with major museums closing their doors and the government deploying a significantly larger security presence to prevent a repeat of last week’s violent unrest, which shocked the country.
