Six people were injured this Wednesday, January 11 in the morning after a stabbing attack at the Gare du Nord, the first station in Europe and the third station in the world in terms of flow. The assailant was subdued by police and is currently hospitalized. Here is what we know, this Wednesday evening, of the attack.
- A stabbing attack
The facts took place shortly before 6:45 a.m. in the station, in the heart of the 10th arrondissement of Paris, at a busy hour. For reasons still unknown, a man injured several people with a punch, according to a police source. That man “suddenly began, for no apparent reason at this stage, to strike a first victim with his weapon, victim to whom he struck about twenty blows”, according to a press release from Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau. However, she pointed out that “the exact sequence of events is not established at this time”.
He used “a metal hook whose longest part ends in a point, surrounded on its major part by a string allowing a better grip”she says.
“An individual injured several people this morning at the Gare du Nord. He was quickly neutralized. Thank you to the police for their effective and courageous response”Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin immediately reacted on Twitter before going there.
- Six injured, one seriously
According to the prosecutor, six people were injured, two men aged 36 and 41, station users, a 46-year-old policeman assigned to the border police (PAF) at Gare du Nord, and three women aged 40, 47. , and 53 years old, station users. Only the 36-year-old man was still hospitalized on Wednesday evening, his vital prognosis not being engaged.
The assailant, whose vital prognosis is engaged, was hospitalized, according to the prosecution. ” The certificate describing his injuries mentions two impacts to the chest and an impact to the lower extremity of the right arm”says Laure Beccuau.
Nothing in the investigation allowed Wednesday evening to evoke a terrorist attack, according to a source familiar with the matter. This assumption “is not privileged”, we commented. The National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office (Pnat) told AFP that it was, for the time being, “under evaluation”. An investigation for attempted murder was opened by the Paris prosecutor’s office and entrusted to the judicial police.
According to a police source, two PAF police officers were on patrol at the level of the access staircase to the Eurostar at the time of the events. One of them tried to surround the attacker who injured him with his punch. His colleague then intervened using his weapon, while the PP policeman, alerted by the noise, immediately arrived and also opened fire on the assailant. As is customary after shooting by the police, the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN) was seized.
- Identity of attacker still unclear
The man ” might “ be born in Algeria or Libya and be in their twenties, according to the Paris prosecutor. “The precise identification of the respondent is in progress, the latter being registered under several identities in the automated fingerprint file fed by his statements during previous procedures of which he has been the subject”she said in a statement.
“He was hospitalized and is undergoing surgery. He could not be auditioned given his state of health.added Laure Beccuau.
According to a police source, he is a Libyan born in 2000 under an obligation to leave French territory (OQTF). The man being of Libyan nationality, France could not deport him to his country because of the instability which reigns there, the same source added. The French authorities do not maintain “no exchange channel for the identification of Libyan nationals”she clarified.
