Paris police attack: Four killed by knife-wielding man

b00merang69 · 3 Oct 2019 at 14:41

"A knife-wielding man has killed four staff at central police headquarters in Paris, French media report.

The attacker, who has not been named but is also said to be a member of staff, was later shot dead by police.

There has been no official statement so far. The area in the île de la Cité - in the centre of Paris - has been sealed off.

The attack comes a day after police went on strike across France over increasing violence towards officers.

It happened at about 13:00 local time (11:00 GMT; 12:00 BST) in the courtyard of the building.

President Emmanuel Macron, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and Interior Minister Christophe Castaner have all gone to the site.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo confirmed on Twitter that "several people" had been killed in the attack, which took place near major tourist sites including the Notre-Dame cathedral.

More details bellow:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/49921145

McBain · 3 Oct 2019 at 14:43

Pretty grim reading

jsmoke · 3 Oct 2019 at 14:44

Just seen this, it's anyone's guess as to the motive atm. Pretty weird how you manage to kill four with a knife though.

Haze · 3 Oct 2019 at 14:45

jsmoke said:
Just seen this, it's anyone's guess as to the motive atm. Pretty weird how you manage to kill four with a knife though.

Never tried it, but I think stabbing works quite well...

jsmoke · 3 Oct 2019 at 14:48

Haze said:
Never tried it, but I think stabbing works quite well...

Yeh but usually trained officers will have an immediate and forceful response. It's not as easy as you think killing someone with a knife, look at all the stabbing stats compared to deaths, probably 0.01% deaths.

Sutters · 3 Oct 2019 at 14:59

'BFMTV reports that he stabbed two people inside two offices, one person on a stairway and the fourth person inside the building's courtyard'

sounds fairly plausible, I expect the first few had no idea they were about to be stabbed, also he'd worked there for 20 years.

diamount · 3 Oct 2019 at 15:13

jsmoke said:
Yeh but usually trained officers will have an immediate and forceful response. It's not as easy as you think killing someone with a knife, look at all the stabbing stats compared to deaths, probably 0.01% deaths.

It's not confirmed if the victims were actual police officers or clerical staff, either way - it wasn't an escaped prisoner going on a rampage. It was a fellow staff member - do you expect your colleagues to stab you in the back? I wouldn't and probably be made sure work of, doesn't take much for a stabbing to become fatal.

dowie · 3 Oct 2019 at 15:15

jsmoke said:
Just seen this, it's anyone's guess as to the motive atm.

Hmmm well I can think of two rather likely ones - terrorism and mental health (and/or perhaps both of those combined).

VincentHanna · 3 Oct 2019 at 15:20

It would be unusual for a terror suspect to work somewhere for 20 years before attacking.

dowie · 3 Oct 2019 at 15:27

VincentHanna said:
It would be unusual for a terror suspect to work somewhere for 20 years before attacking.

Why - are terror suspects supposed to be long term unemployed or something? Terror attacks are unusual in themselves - I don't see what relevance having worked somewhere previously has here though - plenty of terrorists are such as a result of radicalisation and are happy to turn on their own country, neighbours, random people in their town/city etc..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Fort_Hood_shooting

Scam · 3 Oct 2019 at 16:59

Sutters said:
sounds fairly plausible, I expect the first few had no idea they were about to be stabbed

This. You see this attitude a lot when it comes to dangerous incidents. People seem to think if there's a guy running around with a knife there's a big flashing orange sign above his head saying "Warning, dangerous knifeman stay away". The reality is that stuff like this happens without passersby even realising what's going on. Remember when Lee Rigby was murdered on the street.. the guy was ranting at someone filming it on a cameraphone, bloody knife in hand and people were just walking past. They probably head headphones on, didn't see the victim, didn't see the knife etc. We're so inured against 'crazy' people on the streets that if someone was ranting and raving you'd probably just walk past and try to ignore them. Completely unaware that they might stab you.

Uther · 3 Oct 2019 at 17:55

'The attacker had recently converted to Islam according to the French news channel BFM TV.'
Well there you go.

b00merang69 · 3 Oct 2019 at 17:57

I am not a betting man but as soon as I seen headline in Windows 10 Notification area it did cross my mind and I was about 80% certain but we are not supposed to think like that nowadays.

Nasher · 3 Oct 2019 at 18:02

Uther said:
'The attacker had recently converted to Islam according to the French news channel BFM TV.'
Well there you go.

Shocker.

Islam has been completely hijacked by lunatics who just want to murder people.

b00merang69 · 3 Oct 2019 at 18:04

Was he brown skinned or white skinned and a ginger with a neck beard (as I have not seen photo yet)?

morbid42 · 3 Oct 2019 at 18:15

He is probably as islamic as sooty and wanted some excuse to carry out his middle-aged lunacies that he wanted to commit anyway, but didn have the cahoonas to do

FoxEye · 3 Oct 2019 at 18:20

Uther said:
'The attacker had recently converted to Islam according to the French news channel BFM TV.'
Well there you go.

Nothing to see here; move along, citizen.

VincentHanna · 3 Oct 2019 at 18:30

Uther said:
'The attacker had recently converted to Islam according to the French news channel BFM TV.'
Well there you go.

This true? Doesn't seem to chime with what his colleagues were saying

"I do not think this is a terrorist act," Mr Crepin, who knew the attacker, told Franceinfo Radio.

Police union leader Jean-Marc Bailleul described it as a criminal act, telling BFMTV: "It was a moment of madness."

Uther · 3 Oct 2019 at 18:47

VincentHanna said:
This true? Doesn't seem to chime with what his colleagues were saying

Sky has it in their report, no idea if they are right or not. Could be anything, mental illness, terrorism, coffee machine broken...

G-MAN2004 · 3 Oct 2019 at 18:54