Drive-By Shooting in Trappes and La Verriere Kills One and Injures Five Near Paris

Updated 02:00 UTC

President Emmanuel Macron visited Trappes on Friday evening and called the shooting a racist terrorist attack, the words the Elysee Palace also used in announcing the visit. "What happened here today was a racist terrorist attack," Macron said in Trappes, according to CNN, the Wall Street Journal and Newsmax. "This is a turning point because it is the first time there has been a terrorist act aimed at killing our compatriots and our children for the color of their skin or what their religion is thought to be." Macron said the gunman had passed over some people and picked his targets by skin colour and appearance, CNN reported. CNN named the arrested suspect as Kevin T., 39, with no family surname given, as is common in French criminal cases. Le Monde identified the man killed at Square Louis-Pergaud as Pengo B.-W., 26, from Poissy, an amateur mixed martial arts fighter whose club, Atch Academy, paid tribute to him on Instagram. Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Rally, condemned the attack on X as a criminal act of a terrorist nature aggravated by racism, Le Monde reported. Anti-terrorism prosecutors said on Friday night that the conditions of the five wounded people had not yet stabilized, Le Monde reported, which is more cautious than an earlier local account that described the 12-year-old girl as stable.

Updated 16:35 UTC

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said the gunman fatally shot one person and wounded five others, three of them very seriously, with their lives in danger, the Associated Press and BBC News reported. That revises the earlier official toll of four injured. Nunez called the attack a terrorist crime with a possible racist motive and praised the five officers from the anti-crime brigade who stopped the suspect. Aurore Berge, the minister for gender equality and the fight against discrimination, said the 12-year-old girl was very seriously injured and said that if a racist motive is established, the whole nation should stand alongside the residents of Trappes and La Verriere and the victims. Asked about reports that the suspect's home had been booby trapped with gas cylinders, Nunez said the investigation will establish the facts, AP reported. The Times reported that the constituency MP, Laurent Mazaury, said the suspect had told officers he wanted to kill foreigners. Officials have not confirmed a motive, and the anti-terrorism prosecutor's investigation is continuing.

Updated 15:10 UTC

France's National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office said its investigation covers murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise, with the aggravating circumstance that the act may have been committed on account of a victim's actual or perceived membership of a particular race, ethnic group, nationality or religion, the Associated Press reported. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said the shootings happened at three separate locations in Trappes and La Verriere and that the gunman used what appears to have been a military-grade weapon, or at least an automatic weapon. The Wall Street Journal reported that Nunez put the shooting spree at about 15 minutes before police arrested the suspect in Coignieres.

Trappes Mayor Ali Rabeh said the person killed was of African origin and was shot at a play area, and that one of the critically wounded was of North African origin, AP and the Journal reported. Nicolas Dainville, the mayor of La Verriere, told CNEWS that the gunman at one point got out of his car to shoot two men aged 29 and 48, told a passerby, "You're lucky," and then shot a 12-year-old girl, the Journal reported. CNN, citing BFM, reported the girl had been hit eight times. President Emmanuel Macron expressed deep sorrow over the killing in a post on X, thanked the law enforcement agencies that took the suspect into custody, and confirmed the anti-terrorism prosecutor's office had taken over the case. BBC News reported, citing French media, that the suspect is 39 and was known to police, though not to France's intelligence services. The confirmed toll remains one person killed and four others seriously wounded.

A man opened fire from a car on public streets in Trappes and La Verriere, two neighbouring towns in the Yvelines department west of Paris, on Friday morning, October 23, killing one person and injuring four others. A police source told Reuters that one person had died and at least four others were injured in the drive-by shooting, and French broadcaster BFM reported that a suspect had been arrested. Euronews, citing the same police account, put the towns at about 25 to 30 kilometres south-west of Paris and said the shooting took place at around 10:30 a.m. local time.

Shots fired at several places in two towns

Le Figaro reported that the man fired in bursts from his car window, without distinction, in both towns. In Trappes the shots were reported near the post office, at Square Louis Pergaud and at a service station beside the RN10 road, and also near a nursery school and another children's square, the newspaper said. In La Verriere he also opened fire near the SNCF railway station and a pharmacy, according to Le Figaro. A police source told the newspaper that the attacker was driving a grey Renault Clio and used a submachine gun of the Sten type, a Second World War era weapon.

A 12-year-old girl among the injured

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez confirmed the first toll at a midday press conference: one dead and four injured, Le Figaro reported. The Yvelines prefecture said rescue services were still at work and that the toll was not yet stable, so the count could still change. A source told Le Figaro that one of the injured was a 12-year-old girl, seriously wounded. Ali Rabeh, the mayor of Trappes, told BFMTV that the man had fired shots from his car and, in his words, "appeared to be firing at random and seemed intent on carrying out a massacre." Rabeh said the shooter lived in a nearby town and that there was no information so far about his motives.

Suspect arrested on the RN10 in Coignieres

Police arrested the suspect quickly along the RN10 at Coignieres, a town close to both scenes, Le Figaro and Euronews reported. French media named the suspect as Kevin T. Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu wrote on X that the suspect had been arrested and placed in custody, and that all the resources of the security forces and the judicial authorities were fully mobilised.

Anti-terrorism prosecutors take up the case

The national anti-terrorism prosecutor's office told Le Figaro it was placing itself in observation on the case, and Lecornu confirmed on X that the office was monitoring the situation. Le Figaro's live coverage later reported that the anti-terrorism prosecutors had taken over the case, under a headline saying the shooter had wanted to carry out carnage. No motive had been established in the first official statements, and representatives of the prosecutor's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, Reuters reported. Local authorities said they were still assessing the toll, which could change as the injured are treated.