At least two killed and four wounded in Paris shooting

Two people have died and four others were wounded in a shooting in central Paris on Friday, according to police and the public prosecutor’s office.

Two of the wounded are in critical condition. 

The witnesses on the scene told the gunman attacked the nearby Kurdish cultural centre and was seen entering a hairdresser’s salon, according to AFP. 

It is unclear whether he intentionally targeted either of the two at this time.

“An investigation has been opened on charges of murder, intentional homicide and aggravated violence,” and “the investigations have been entrusted for the time being to the 2nd district of the judicial police (DPJ),” the prosecutor’s office said.  

A suspect, “a man aged between 60 and 70 was arrested and placed in custody,” and “his identity (was) being determined”.

The incident occurred on rue d’Enghien, located between Saint-Denis and Montmartre in the French capital’s 10th district.

Paris police asked people to avoid the area and allow for the services to intervene.

“It was a total panic,” a shopkeeper from a nearby building who wished to remain anonymous told AFP.

“We saw an old white man come in and shoot in the Kurdish cultural centre, then he went into the hairdresser’s next door. We took refuge in the restaurant with the employees,” Romain, the assistant manager of the Pouliche Paris restaurant in the street, told AFP by telephone. 

According to another witness, a local resident who was walking by, “there were people in panic who shouted at the police: ‘He’s here, he’s here, move on’, pointing to a hairdressing salon”. 

“I saw police officers enter the salon where I saw two people on the ground, with injuries to their legs, I saw blood,” he added, describing “people in shock and panic”.

The Ahmet Kaya Centre, named after a famous Turkish-Kurdish singer who lived in the city, is an association established in the French capital in 1901 whose aim is to “promote the progressive integration” of the Kurdish population living in the wider Paris area.

Our journalists are working on this story and will update it as soon as more information becomes available.