Paris shooting: Three dead after gunman opens fire

A 69-year-old man who is known to police has been arrested

A gunman killed three people at a Kurdish cultural centre and nearby Kurdish cafe in central Paris on Friday, prompting violent protests in nearby streets as night fell.

President Emmanuel Macron said France’s Kurdish community had been the target of a heinous attack while French interior minister Gerald Darmanin said the suspected assailant had clearly wanted to target foreigners.

A man, who police said had previously attacked a migrant camp in the French capital, was arrested over the shooting last night. Police said the attack happened on Rue d’Enghien, in the 10th arrondissement. The local mayor told French media that the Kurdish community centre, a restaurant and a hairdresser were affected.

All three of those who died were Kurdish, a lawyer for the Kurdish cultural centre told Reuters. Three others were also wounded, with one criticially injured and two less seriously hurt. The suspect was wounded in the face.

Police and firefighters secure a street (Reuters)

On Friday evening, riot police fired teargas to push back an angry crowd a short distance from the scene of the shootings as projectiles were thrown at officers. Footage showed people starting a fire in the middle of the street and throwing chairs and other objects. Rubbish bins and restaurant tables were overturned.

The Kurdish Democratic Council in France (CDF-K), which runs the cultural centre, condemned the attack in a statement. A vigil was also held to pay tribute to those killed. A demonstration is also planned on Paris’s Place de la République on Saturday.

President Emmanuel Macron said in a tweet: “The Kurds of France have been the target of a heinous attack in the heart of Paris. Our thoughts are with the victims, the people who are struggling to live, their families and loved ones.”

Police near the scene of the crime on Friday (AFP)

The Paris prosecutor’s office said: “An investigation has been opened into the counts of murder, intentional homicide and aggravated violence.”

There is no confirmed motive for the shooting, but Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said the suspect had recently been freed from detention while awaiting trial for a separate incident.

That incident – in which he attacked tents at a migrant camp in Paris with a sword – took place at Bercy in December 2021. It is not yet clear why he was released from custody.

Firefighters move an injured man (Reuters)

Eyewitness Mehmet Dilek said he first heard gunshots and then cries coming from inside a barber's shop opposite the cultural centre. Bystanders subdued the gunman when he tried to reload his firearm, Mr Dilek added.

Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said that the attacker was known to the authorities (AP)

“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.

Describing what he heard during the shootings, one shopkeeper said that seven or eight shots were fired, causing mayhem on the street. “It was total panic. We locked ourselves inside,” she said.

A restaurant worker, Romain, said: “We saw an old white man enter and then start shooting in the Kurdish cultural centre, then he went to the hairdresser’s next door.”

Another witness told BFMTV: “We heard five shots that came from 50m to 100m. Afterwards, we saw a person in his sixties who took a gun out of his little bag and started shooting at our house.”

Protesters and police clash in central Paris (EPA)

According to the witness, the gunman “seems to have been very quickly overpowered” by the public. He told local media that he had been walking down the street when the man opened fire. He said he “heard two shots” and said that the man had shot blindly in the street. “We saw people running to the right, to the left,” he said.

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.

In 2013, three women Kurdish activists, including Sakine Cansiz – a founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK – were found shot dead at a Kurdish centre in Paris. A Turkish citizen was charged with their killing, but he died from a brain tumour in a Paris hospital before trial.