The public prosecutor of Saint-Denis de La Réunion, Véronique Denizot, told the press from the commune of La Possession, Saturday October 28, that a man had been taken into police custody after the death of three people, including a child, in the town in the northwest of the island.
Six people were also injured by this man, whose local gendarmerie told Agence France-Presse that he had, in the early morning, stabbed to death his mother and then his niece before going to a Crédit bank branch farm where he killed one person and took customers hostage. Ms. Denizot, for her part, did not provide details on how the events unfolded.
According to the prefect of Réunion, Jérôme Filippini, who also went to the scene, “70 gendarmerie soldiers were engaged”, “16 people under the GIGN who finalized the arrest”. Around thirty firefighters were mobilized, he added.
A mental state not incompatible with police custody
Placed in custody, the attacker was “slightly injured during the assault” by the gendarmes, according to the prosecutor. The latter noted that his physical and mental state had not been deemed incompatible with his placement in police custody. “At this stage, there is nothing to support the terrorist motive”, “the man is not known to the justice services for acts of radicalization and he is not on the “S” file”, he said. she pointed out.
A psychological assistance unit was to be set up in the afternoon, within the town hall itself, the facts having caused great excitement locally. The prosecutor spoke of “a tragedy of exceptional and extremely rare magnitude” in Reunion.
