A French pensioner suspected of killing three Kurds and wounding three others near a Kurdish cultural center in Paris on Friday told investigators he carried out the attack because he was a “racist”.

attack on ParisPhoto: Apaydin Alain/ABACA / Abaca Press / Profimedia

The suspect, a retired French train driver, fired several shots shortly before noon on Friday in the rue d’Angien, a busy shopping area popular with the Kurdish community in central Paris.

Three people, one woman and two men, died, three men were injured, one of them, according to the latest information, is in serious condition.

According to the Kurdish Democratic Council of France (CDK-F), the murdered woman, Emine Kara, was a leader of the Kurdish Women’s Movement in France. She applied for political asylum, which was “rejected by the French authorities,” movement spokesman Agit Polat said on Friday.

The two dead are Abdulrahman Kizil, an “ordinary Kurdish citizen” who visited the association “daily,” and Mir Perver, a Kurdish artist recognized as a political refugee, CDK-F reported. .

A police source confirmed to AFP the identities of Emine Kar and Abdulrahman Kizil.

French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the “heinous attack” which was “targeted against the Kurds of France”. At his request, the Paris police chief will host Kurdish community leaders on Saturday, who have also announced a midday demonstration in Paris.

The suspect was detained and an investigation started. The possibility of a terrorist attack has been ruled out. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanen said on Friday that he “wanted to attack foreigners” and “obviously acted alone”. According to him, the suspect often visited the shooting range.

In December 2021, the suspect was also charged with intentional and racist violence. He is suspected of stabbing migrants in a camp in Paris and smashing their tents.

After a year of pretrial detention, he was released on December 12 under French law and placed under judicial supervision.

The man was also sentenced in 2017 to a six-month suspended prison term for illegal possession of a weapon and in June of last year to twelve months in prison for violence with a weapon committed in 2016.