Gunman fires from car near Paris, killing 1; police arrest suspect

PARIS, Oct 23 — A gunman opened fire from a car west of Paris, ​killing one person and wounding four others including a 12-year-old girl on Friday, French authorities said.

"We would like to ‌thank our law enforcement agencies, which have already taken the suspect into custody. The ⁠National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office has ​taken over the case," President ⁠Emmanuel Macron said in a post on X, expressing deep ‌sorrow over the killing.

The ‌shooting comes at a moment of particular tension in ⁠France, after nationwide protests turned violent ⁠last Saturday and ahead of possible unrest this coming weekend. Some on the far right had blamed immigration for last weekend's violence.

The anti-terrorism prosecutor's office said its investigation included looking at whether the shooting was a terrorist act or if ‌it were racially or religiously motivated.

Ali Rabeh, ​the mayor of the town of Trappes west of Paris, told BFMTV that a man had fired shoots from his car and "appeared to be firing at random and seemed intent on carrying out a massacre".

Rabeh said the gunman was driving on a road from Trappes to neighbouring La Verriere and lived ​in a nearby town. Broadcaster BFM reported that the wounded 12-year-old ‌girl had been ‌hit eight ⁠times.

Nicolas Dainville, the mayor of La Verriere, described the suspect as "an individual residing in Plaisir and 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.

(Reporting ⁠by Juliette ​Jabkhiro, Dominique Vidalon and Zhifan Liu; Editing by Makini Brice, Crispian Balmer, ​Peter Graff)

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