The 69-year-old attacker has French citizenship – The Paris prosecutor’s office announced that it will examine possible racist motives behind the attack
Three people were killed and three others were injured during the armed attack on a Kurdish cultural center in the 10th arrondissement of Paris, announced the prosecutor of the French capital, Laure Bequiot, adding that the perpetrator is known to the authorities.
The 69-year-old suspected perpetrator of the armed attack in Paris near the Kurdish cultural center Ahmet Kaya is a French citizen and is known for two attempted murders in 2016 and in December 2021; it became known from a police source. Last year’s attack was against a migrant camp, BFM TV reported.
🇨🇵 ALERT INFO – Plusieurs blessés dans le 10eme arrondissement de #Paris.
👉 Police on site. A suspect interpelé.
🎥 @ClementLanotpic.twitter.com/D7ncm9l8l6 https://t.co/KSVrPmq2HE— Hugo & Quentin | Live news 🎄 (@InfoHugoQuentin) December 23, 2022
The arrested person is not known to the French internal security services, the same source clarified.
Paris prosecutors said they would look into possible racist motives behind the attack.“An investigation is underway for murder, manslaughter and aggravated assault” and the investigations are currently assigned to the 2nd Directorate of the Judicial Police, the prosecutor’s office explained.
“The target was Kurds,” said Juan-Golan Elibert, an artist who works at the Kurdish cultural center.
The attack took place on rue Angiem, at the height of the Kurdish cultural center, in a commercial area that is the center of Kurdish community life in the French capital.
“The attack took place in the center of the Kurdish community on rue Angien, as well as in the opposite restaurant and a hair salon,” the mayor of the French capital’s 10th arrondissement, Alexandra Cordebar, said at the scene of the attack. “The assailant has been injured, not too seriously, and has been taken to the hospital,” he added.
🔴 SUIVI – #FaitsDivers : 2 morts et 4 blessés dont 2 en urgence absolue dans une #fusillade rue d’#Enghiendans le 10eme arrdt de Paris près d’un center culturel #kurd.A 69-year-old man was interpellé avec une arme à feu. #fusilladeparis pic.twitter.com/fYIN8bhMFG
— FranceNews24 (@FranceNews24) December 23, 2022
French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin tweeted that he was returning to Paris from northern France where he had been “following the dramatic armed attack”.
At the site of the attack, which is cordoned off by police forces, members of the Ahmet Kaya cultural center shouted at the police: “it starts again, you are not protecting us, they are killing us.”
Present at the time of the attack was Selma Akaya, a journalist and activist of Kurdish origin who told AFP that there were “six wounded”, among them “a famous Kurdish singer”. According to her, the attacker shot towards a hairdresser.
“We saw an elderly white gentleman turn around and shoot at the Kurdish cultural center, then he went to the hair salon next door. We hid in the restaurant with the staff,” said the owner of an adjacent restaurant.
There are many restaurants, bars and shops in and around rue Angien and the sidewalks are usually full of people.
The Ahmet Kaya Center, in honor of the famous Kurdish singer of the same name, is an association (French law 1901) aimed at the “progressive integration” of the Kurdish population living in France.
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