News
Paris Gunman Kills 3 At A Kurdish Cultural Centre
(CTN NEWS) – PARIS – Three people were killed and three others were injured in an attack on a Kurdish cultural centre in a busy Paris area on Friday, according to authorities.
The suspect, age 69, was injured and taken into custody.
The suspect had recently been freed from prison after attacking migrants who were living in tents, according to the Paris prosecutor, and authorities are looking into the possibility that the shooting may have had a racist motivation.
“Kurds in France were the intended target of the attack,” according to President Emmanuel Macron’s tweet.
Les Kurdes de France ont été la cible d’une odieuse attaque au cœur de Paris. Pensées aux victimes, aux personnes qui luttent pour vivre, à leurs familles et proches. Reconnaissance à nos forces de l’ordre pour leur courage et leur sang-froid.
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) December 23, 2022
“A terrible attack in the centre of Paris was directed at the Kurds of France. In a tweet, Macron expressed his condolences to the victims, those who are fighting for their lives, and their families and loved ones.
A few hours after the shooting, clashes broke out in the area as Kurdish community members yelled anti-Turkish government chants and police used tear gas to disperse the agitated gathering. A few trash cans caught fire.
As Gerald Darmanin, the interior minister was speaking to reporters nearby, tensions arose.
Police fired tear gas to disperse an increasingly agitated crowd in central Paris, soon after a gunman killed three Kurdish people during a shooting at a community center.
Lewis Joly/AP
The assailant was obviously going after foreigners, but according to Darmanin, there is yet no proof that he was expressly planning to harm Kurds.
Friday night, Darmanin will conduct a special meeting to discuss threats against the Kurdish population in France.
Following the shooting, shocked Kurdish residents of Paris claimed that police had just alerted them to threats against Kurdish targets and demanded justice.
The attack occurred as Paris is bustling with holiday activities ahead of the Christmas weekend, gravely upsetting nearby residents and business owners.
“The shooting took place at a Kurdish cultural centre, as well as a nearby restaurant and hair salon,” according to Alexandra Cordebard, the mayor of the 10th arrondissement.
Paris Gunman Kills 3 At A Kurdish Cultural Centre
As she spoke, a group of people nearby screamed “Erdogan, terrorist” and “Turkish state, assassin” in reference to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoan.
A nearby construction worker saw the attacker proceed to the Kurdish Cultural Centre, the restaurant, and then the hairdresser in that order.
According to the construction worker who spoke to The Associated Press, he observed the attacker damage three individuals before being stopped by two bystanders.
The worker, who spoke on the condition that his identity not be revealed out of concern for his safety, described the assailant as being silent and composed while brandishing a small-caliber revolver.
Emergency services attended the scene of the shooting, where a gunman opened fire at the Kurdish Cultural Center Ahmet-Kaya in Paris.
Lewis Joly/AP
On a popular boulevard with shops and restaurants close to the Gare de l’Est railway station in the 10th arrondissement of the French capital, police blocked off the area.
According to Paris Prosecutor Laure Beccuau, three victims of the gunshot have died, one is in critical condition, and two others are being treated at hospitals for less serious wounds.
She claimed that the attacker had facial injuries as well.
ALERTE – Fusillade à Paris : plusieurs blessés dans le 10eme arrondissement.
Police sur place. Un suspect interpelé. pic.twitter.com/mbQFl2a0vf
— Clément Lanot (@ClementLanot) December 23, 2022
She stated that although anti-terrorism prosecutors are in communication with detectives, they have not yet revealed any evidence of a terrorist motive.
The attack on migrants in tents in eastern Paris in 2021 and a recent conviction in another instance in a Paris neighborhood, according to the prosecutor, where two of the suspects had at least two prior roles with the police.
French police secure a street after gunshots were fired killing two people and injuring several in a central district of Paris, France, December 23, 2022. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier
She made no further mention of each case’s specifics.
According to Darmanin, the assailant used a shooting range at a sports club and owned many registered guns.
The assailant is French, and according to him, he was not associated with any extreme-right or other political organizations and was not on any watch lists for radicalism.
According to Yann Manzi of the relief organization Utopia 54, the suspect attacked migrants with a sabre while injuring a few persons in a temporary camp.
He bemoaned the suspect’s sudden release, as did the Kurds who had congregated at the shooting location on Friday.
Protestors clash with French police during a demonstration near the Rue d’Enghien after gunshots were fired killing and injuring several people in a central district of Paris, France, December 23, 2022. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier
The activist Murat Roni told The Associated, “We do not at all feel safe in Paris.” “We don’t feel that the French legal system is protecting us,” It is obvious that the Kurds were the target.
He compared the Kurdish Cultural Centre to the Kurdish embassy in Paris, describing it as “a house where all Kurds get together” and a space for political dialogue and artistic events.
Three female Kurdish activists were found shot to death in 2013 at a Kurdish center in Paris, one of them was Sakine Cansiz, the PKK’s founder.
Though suspicion also rested on the Turkish intelligence service, a Turkish national was accused of their murder.
Darmanin called on the French president and prime minister to allow Kurdish people who wanted to protest, following the fatal shooting.
Thomas Samson/AFP/Getty Images
In southeast Turkey as well as northern Iraq, the Turkish army has been engaged in combat with PKK-affiliated Kurdish terrorists.
The Turkish military has also lately carried out a number of artillery and airstrikes against terrorist Syrian Kurdish targets in northern Syria.
Since 1984, the PKK has commanded an armed insurgency against the Turkish state; it is regarded as a terrorist organization in Turkey, Europe, and the United States.
In 2015–2016, Islamic radicals carried out a number of terrible assaults in France, and the country is still on high alert for acts of terrorism.
RELATED CTN NEWS:
Memphis Rapper Big Scarr Dead at age 22
