By Juliette Jabkhiro and Dominique Vidalon
PARIS, Oct 23 (Reuters) – A gunman killed one person and wounded five others, including a 12-year-old girl, in a shooting in a Paris suburb that French President Emmanuel Macron described as a “terrorist and racist” attack.
“What happened today is, I am telling you, a turning point, because it is the first time we have had a terrorist act that was planned to kill our compatriots, our children, based on the colour of their skin or their religion,” Macron told reporters.
The shooting happened earlier on Friday when the gunman fired an automatic weapon at a petrol station, a medical centre and a children’s playground in Trappes, on the Paris outskirts.
Officials said a 39-year-old suspect, whom they named as Kevin T, had been arrested. His family surname was not given, as is common practice in such criminal inquiries in France.
The shooting comes at a moment of particular tension in France, after nationwide protests turned violent last Saturday and before further demonstrations this coming weekend.
Some far-right politicians have blamed immigration for looting and vandalism in a number of French cities on October 17.
Macron said the gunman had deliberately chosen not to fire upon some people due to their skin colour and appearance.
The anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office, known as PNAT, formally opened an investigation into the shooting.
PNAT can take over any criminal investigation it believes meets the criteria for terrorism, including violence inspired by far-right ideas. Terrorism sentences are tougher, and counter-terrorism forces have greater investigative powers.
Broadcaster BFM said the wounded girl had been hit eight times and was in serious condition.
Trappes Mayor Ali Rabeh, whose parents came from Morocco, said the shooting was “racist” and “Islamophobic.”
“The people targeted today could just as easily have been my mother, my brothers or my sisters-in-law,” said Rabeh.
Rabeh called for a collective condemnation of rhetoric that “ideologically arms those capable of carrying out such acts.”
Nicolas Dainville, the mayor of nearby La Verriere, said the suspect was “of a European type.” Rabeh said two of the victims were of African and North African origin, respectively, and did not provide details about the backgrounds of the other victims.
Video images showed the suspect’s car riddled with bullets.
(Reporting by Juliette Jabkhiro, Dominique Vidalon, Zhifan Liu, Elizabeth Pineau, Nicolas Delame and Sudip Kar-Gupta; Writing by Crispian Balmer, Editing by Makini Brice, Peter Graff, Rod Nickel)
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