- Gerald Darmanin says person started attacking individuals at 6:42 a.m.
- Border police and off-duty police officers disarmed the person, he added.
- Six injured, including member of French border police.
Gare du Nord train station attack in Paris left at least six people hurt, limiting traffic to one of the main rail terminals in the French capital.
According to Gerald Darmanin, France’s interior minister, a person started attacking individuals at 6:42 a.m. local time and was neutralized a minute later.
In a press conference, Darmanin added that border police and off-duty police officers who were heading home disarmed the person.
Darmanin continued, “The attacker created the weapon himself.” The suspect began using a knife to assault victims at 6:45 a.m. local time, according to Paris police.
A security guard employed by the rail company SNCF was among the police officers who opened fire, according to the police. The accused attacker was hurt as a result of multiple rounds being fired.
Six persons, including a member of the French border police, were hurt, according to a representative for the Paris prosecutor’s office.
The status of one of the injured is critical. According to the spokesman, the suspect is also in critical condition.
According to the Paris Prosecutor’s Office, there is no indication as to why the knife attack occurred.
The French national Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office said it is “evaluating the facts” about the attack, but has not yet taken the case. The fact that the suspected attacker was injured may lengthen the time it will take to evaluate the facts about the case, the office added.
Darmanin arrived at Gare du Nord soon after the attack Wednesday morning. Earlier, he wrote on Twitter that the alleged attacker had injured several people before being “quickly neutralized.”
“Thankful to the police for their effective and courageous response,” Darmanin tweeted.
“My friends and I were going on holiday this morning and we were at the entrance of the station when we heard people yelling,” she said.
“We saw two people on the ground. One was hitting the other. People tried to pull them apart and that’s when the attacker pulled out his weapon.
People started yelling ‘knife!’ and began running away. I helped the first victim who had been attacked and I got the impression that the individual was attacking all the people who tried to get near him and overpower him.
“I helped the injured person who had been attacked and was in a state of shock. I brought them to the police and I then tried to find my friends and that’s when we heard the gunshots. The armed forces responded very quickly to the attack. It didn’t even last five minutes even though it felt like an eternity to me.
“We are all shocked by what we saw. We were two meters away. It could have been one of us because we were so close. It’s very traumatic.”
Several hundred people congregated in the Gare Du Nord station’s main concourse after the incident, many of whom were waiting for information regarding trains.
According to the Media, some intercity train platforms were inaccessible because of the security perimeter that surrounded a sizable chunk of the station’s main concourse. Following a lengthy closure, access to the Eurostar terminal has since been restored.
Police personnel could be seen gathering evidence in paper bags while the attack scene was hidden from view by police screens.
After several years of increased anxiety in the wake of terror attacks, Parisians had started to de-escalate, but Wednesday’s event, which is currently not being probed as a terror-related incident by French police, is the second in two months.
Three Kurdish activists were shot and killed in the north of Paris in December by a guy who at the time was under investigation by the Paris prosecutor’s office for racial violence.
However, there was a peaceful vibe at Gare du Nord Wednesday at lunchtime, and travelers appeared optimistic about making their trains.
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