Paris station stabbings: Probe opened for attempted murders

PARIS: The Paris prosecutor's office opened a judicial investigation Sunday (Jan 15) into “attempted murders" after seven people were injured with a sharp metallic hook at a crowded Paris train station on Wednesday.

Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said in a statement that her office asked for the man suspected in the attack to be detained pending further investigation. He was shot and wounded by police during the attack at the Gare du Nord train station, authorities have said.

Although six victims, including a police officer, were immediately located, a seventh injured person, a 53-year-old man who left the scene, has since been found, according to the prosecutor's statement.

Beccuau said the identity of the assailant remained to be formally established.

Investigators said he presents himself as a 31-year-old Algerian national and was known to French authorities under several identities for home invasion, theft and rebellion in 2019 and 2021, Sunday's statement said.

He received orders to leave French territory in 2020 and in September of last year, the statement detailed.

A preliminary investigation found that the suspect threw himself upon a man in front of the train station, stabbing him about 20 times, with no apparent reason. The assailant then entered the station and attacked other civilians and a police officer. Screams alerted two other police officers who intervened.

Beccuau said the judicial investigation would seek to clarify the alleged assailant's exact actions, motives and personality.