At least two dead and four wounded in a shooting at a Kurdish cultural center in Paris

At least three people have died and three have been injured, one of them seriously, after a 69-year-old man shot several people at noon this Friday at a Kurdish community cultural center and at a hairdresser's.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
23 December 2022 Friday 05:30
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At least two dead and four wounded in a shooting at a Kurdish cultural center in Paris

At least three people have died and three have been injured, one of them seriously, after a 69-year-old man shot several people at noon this Friday at a Kurdish community cultural center and at a hairdresser's. nearby, located in a central business district of Paris, especially popular with this community.

Police have arrested the alleged shooter, a man with a racist background, according to Paris prosecutor Laure Beccau. A police source affirms that the alleged attacker is a "Caucasian man", of French nationality, according to the news agency France Presse (AFP). Apparently, the detainee was known to the French authorities for two murder attempts committed in 2016 and December 2021, at least the latter took place in a migrant camp, according to AFP and the French channel BFM TV.

The authorities have asked the population, via Twitter, to avoid the area where the events occurred. Specifically, Enghien street, in the 10th district of the city. There is the Ahmet Kaya Center, a cultural center named after the Kurdish singer of the same name.

A neighbor, who did not want to be identified, told the same agency that seven or eight shots had been fired, causing chaos in the street. "We saw an old white man enter and shoot at the Kurdish cultural center, then he went to the hairdresser next door. We took refuge in the restaurant with the employees," said Romain, deputy manager of the Pouliche restaurant.

According to the account of another neighbor questioned by AFP, there were panic scenes of people yelling at the police "it's there, there in front" while pointing to a beauty salon. "I saw the police enter the hairdresser's, where there were two people on the ground, their legs injured. There was blood," this witness explained, "people were in shock," he added.

Another neighbor told the French newspaper Le Monde that when she left her apartment and passed the Kurdish cultural center, she saw "two bodies lying on the ground at the top of the steps of the premises."

For their part, the mayor Anne Hidalgo and the city's deputy mayor, Emmanuel Gregoire, have confirmed the facts on their respective Twitter accounts and have reported that a "psychological care unit has been set up in the City Hall of the 10th district of Paris". .

"An investigation has been opened on charges of murder, intentional homicide and aggravated violence," the Paris prosecutor's office told BFM TV, which has not revealed the identity of the person arrested.

The association behind the Ahmet Kaya Center was created with the aim of "promoting the gradual integration" of the Kurdish population living in the French region of the Ile-de-France, to which the city of Paris belongs.