Police shot an unarmed woman wearing an Islamic veil who was ‘threatening to blow herself up while screaming Allahu Akbar’ at a Paris metro station today.
The victim, who has not been named, was hit by at least one bullet during rush hour at the Bibliothèque François-Mitterrand station.
After passengers on a suburban train alerted police, officers managed to ‘isolate’ the woman at the station on the French capital’s south bank, leading to a stand-off.
The woman was shot around 50 minutes after armed police arrived and was left in a critical condition. Police said officers fired after she did not respond to warnings.
The incident comes amid heightened tensions in France over the on-going Israel-Hamas war, and between the country’s Muslim and Jewish communities. It was not immediately clear if the incident was linked to the conflict.
Police have shot an unarmed woman wearing an Islamic veil who was ‘threatening to blow herself up while screaming Allahu Akbar’ at a metro station in Paris
‘According to police, she made threats and advocated terrorism,’ said an investigating source.
Armed officers arrived at the station soon after 8.30am, and the woman – who witnesses said was dressed in an Islamic veil – ‘threatened to blow herself up,’ said the source.
She is also said to have shouted ‘Allahu akbar’ – Arabic for ‘God is the Greatest’.
‘Fearing for their safety, the police opened fire around 9:20 a.m. She was then injured in the stomach and evacuated immediately,’ said the source.
Tuesday’s incident prompted France’s Vigipirate anti-terrorist plan to be launched. The station was shut down, soldiers surrounded the area, and civilians evacuated.
The woman was initially spotted at the Villeneuve-le-Roi RER station, where she was ‘making worrying comments’.
Police waited for her in Paris, and ‘having refused to comply with the officers orders and threatening to blow herself up, a police officer made a single use of his firearm,’ said the prosecuting source.
He confirmed the suspect’s condition in hospital was ‘critical’.
The victim, who has not been named, was hit today by at least one bullet at the height of the rush hour at the Bibliothèque François-Mitterrand Metro station in Paris (pictured today)
The incident happened at the Bibliothèque François-Mitterrand Metro station in Paris
A spokesman for the Paris prosecutor’s office declared ‘two investigations have been opened, following the shooting and arrest of a woman on the RER C train line’.
He said she had been ‘reported for having uttered death threats after getting on a train in the Val-de-Marne’ suburbs.
One investigation was against the woman for ‘apology for terrorism, death threats and acts of intimidation’.
The second investigation was also opened into ‘intentional violence with a weapon by a person holding public authority’ – in this case a police officer.
France was plunged into rioting in June after the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk – a French Muslim from an Algerian Moroccan background – in the Paris suburb of Nanterre.
His killer, who has not been formally named, was a traffic police officer who remains in custody pending a trial.
Cars were burned, buildings set alight, fireworks thrown at police, and shops looted for more than a week as France was accused of being institutionally racist.
The country has been under ‘attack alert’ since October 13, when a teacher in the northern city of Arras was stabbed to death by an Islamist former pupil.
The alleged attacker had been under police surveillance on suspicion of Islamic radicalisation. French anti-terror investigators said the suspect declared allegiance to the Islamic State group before the assault in the northern French town of Arras.
Dominique Bernard, 57, was repeatedly stabbed in the neck by a self-styled ISIS terrorist who also shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’. Mr Bernard’s alleged killed is 20-year-old Chechen refugee Mohamed Mogouchkov, who is in custody.
After passengers on a suburban train alerted police, officers managed to ‘isolate’ the woman at the station on the capital’s south bank, leading to a stand-off
French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said there was also tension over the ongoing Hamas-Israel War in the Middle East.
French President Emmanuel Macron has called for unity over the war because France is home to western Europe’s largest Muslim and Jewish communities.
France has banned a number of pro-Palestinian rallies, and fired tear gas and water cannons at those showing their support for those being killed in Gaza.
This is a breaking news story. More to follow…