One person has been killed and four others wounded in a gun attack in a Parisian suburb which police have said they are treating as a terrorist incident.
Several drive-by shootings took place on Friday – first in Trappes to the southwest of Paris, and then nearby La Verrière – and a local mayor said a 12-year-old girl was among the wounded.
French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said the suspected attacker had been “apprehended and placed in police custody”.
The National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT) said it had taken on the investigation into the incident, which appeared to be “murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise”.
The mayor of Trappes, Ali Rabeh, said that “an individual fired shots from his vehicle at several people he encountered” on Friday morning.
The alleged gunman “wandered aimlessly” through several neighbourhoods and “fired randomly” with the seeming intent of causing “as many casualties as possible”, Rabeh told BFMTV. “He wanted to cause carnage,” he said.
The mayor said he had targeted people at a petrol station, a medical centre and a playground in Trappes before driving on to nearby La Verrière, where Mayor Nicolas Dainville said the four wounded were in critical condition.
A police union official said the suspect had been detained in La Verrière on the main N10 road that runs through the town.
Asked what the motive for the shootings may have been, the mayor of Trappes said that the victim who had died was of African origin and one of those in a critical condition was of North African descent.
But in its own statement, the anti-terror prosecutor called for caution regarding the identity of the victims.
Among the alleged offences covered by the investigation, the prosecutor listed “murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise” with the aggravated circumstance of acts committed because of “real or perceived membership of a particular race, ethnicity, nation or religion”.
President Emmanuel Macron said: “Our thoughts go out to the victims, their families, as well as all the people of Yvelines. In this terrible ordeal, the nation stands by their side.”
