The French Police shot this morning in the Paris metro at a woman covered in an abaya and veil who had shouted “Allahu Akbar” (Allah is great) and had a threatening attitude towards passengers. A team from the BAC (the Anticriminal Brigade) intervened to try to intercept her, but the woman refused to show her hands and they finally shot her.
It happened at the François Mitterrand Library station, although several passengers had previously called the Police to warn of the presence of a woman who was wandering around the network and threatening users.
The woman has been shot eight times, according to the Paris Prosecutor’s Office, and one of them hit her in the belly. She is hospitalized, with a serious prognosis. Explosive detection canine teams have moved to the station, which has been evacuated, but have found nothing suspicious.
According to police sources revealed to the AFP agency, the agents managed to isolate the woman in the suburban car, who was threatening to explode herself, but did not obey the agents’ instructions. The Prefect of the Police, Laurent Nuñez, explained in a press conference that the woman was known to the Police for similar acts that occurred in 2021.
The Prosecutor’s Office has opened two investigations, one for advocacy of terrorism and “act of intimidation against a trustee of public authority”, and another to clarify the use of weapons by the agents. This has been entrusted to the General Inspection of the National Police (IGPN).
France has been in a maximum state of terrorist alert for three weeks, after the attack on an institute in Arras (in the north of the country) in which a teacher was stabbed to death at the hands of a jihadist. The tension has been aggravated by the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East: France is the country in Europe that has the largest Jewish community, but also the largest Muslim population.
The Paris Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation after several stars of David, a Jewish symbol, appeared drawn on some buildings in the center of the capital. The crime of targeting based on ethnicity or religion is punishable by a fine of 30,000 euros.
