Three Dead, Several Injured After Gunfire at Central Paris Kurdish Cultural Centre, Police Arrest One

Paris Police arrested a man in his 60s after at least two people were killed in a shooting at a Kurdish Cultural Centre in central Paris on Friday morning.

UPDATE 1440: Death toll raised to three

The death toll in the Friday morning attack has risen to three with another victim succumbing to their injuries. According to a report from Le Figaro, the 69-year-old suspect had previously been charged twice with attempted murder, once in 2016 and again in 2021. Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said that a “racist” motive for the shooting is being considered by authorities.

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At least two people were killed and four injured in Paris’s central 10th arrondissement on Friday morning, the Paris neighbourhood which includes the city’s Eurostar international express rail terminal. The shooting is widely reported to have taken place inside a Kurdish Cultural centre and restaurant, and while it is reported that counter-terror police are now aiding the investigation it has not yet been declared a terrorist incident.

France 24 reports a 69-year-old man has been arrested — a weapon was recovered — and that a shopkeeper witness told of hearing “seven or eight” gunshots. Citing police courses, French outlet 20Minutes claims the suspect is a French-born retired train driver, but this information has not been confirmed by police officially yet.

Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo thanked the police for their “decisive action” during the attack and expressed sympathy to the victims and their families. Deputy mayor Emmanuel Grégoire struck similar notes, adding he was in discussion with police to get the facts of the attack.

While Paris Police have not made clear this attack was definitely racially motivated against Kurds, it nevertheless is a fact that Kurds have long been targets of violence in Europe, where inter-ethnic conflicts imported as part of mass migratory flows continue to bubble away in new lands. Breitbart London has reported on attacks against Kurdish cultural centres by Turkish nationalist extremists, as well as foiled terror plots against Kurds in Europe.