Gunman opens fire in central Paris, killing three and injuring three others
A man accused of shooting dead three Kurdish people in Paris was awaiting trial over a sabre attack on a migrant camp last year, prosecutors say.
A gunman killed three people at a Kurdish cultural centre and nearby Kurdish cafe in central Paris on Friday (local time), prompting scores of protesters to take to nearby streets.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said the suspect had wanted to target foreigners, but there was no evidence he had picked out Kurds specifically.
All three of the deceased victims were Kurdish, a lawyer for the Kurdish cultural centre told Reuters.
French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted his sympathies to the Kurdish community, who he said had been the target of a "heinous" attack.
Multiple gunshots were fired on Rue d'Enghien at about midday on Friday (local time), sowing panic on a street lined with small shops and cafes in the French capital's busy 10th district.
Authorities said they had arrested a 69-year-old man, who Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said 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.
As evening fell, riot police fired tear gas to push back an angry crowd a short distance from the scene of the shootings as projectiles were thrown at officers, rubbish bins and restaurant tables overturned and at least one car damaged.
Juan-Golan Eliberg, an artist who works at the Kurdish centre, told Reuters the shooter had targeted Kurds.
Eyewitness Mehmet Dilek told Reuters he first heard gunshots and then cries coming from inside a barber's shop opposite the cultural centre.
Bystanders subdued the gunman when he had to reload his firearm, Mr Dilek 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.
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.
Reuters
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