Police used tear gas to disperse a crowd of Kurdish demonstrators near a Kurdish cultural center in central Paris, in front of which a man killed three people this afternoon, an AFP reporter said.

The incidents began when the crowd crashed into a cordon of security forces guarding French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, who had arrived on the scene.

The security forces used tear gas against the protesters, who, in turn, threw objects in their direction, burned garbage cans and set up barricades.

BREAKING: Protests are taking place at the site of a shooting near a Kurdish community center in Paris that left three people dead.

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The French interior minister stressed that the French government had asked the police to strengthen the protection of the facilities of the Kurdish community in the country after the deadly attack, noting that the exact motives of the attacker, a 69-year-old French national who “in the current situation” acted alone, so far so far unknown.

This morning, a gunman opened fire on the Kurdish cultural center Ahmet Kaya and a nearby Kurdish cafe in the 10th arrondissement of Paris, killing three people who were members of the local Kurdish community and injuring three others. The perpetrator was arrested.

The attack took place on Anjiem Street, at the height of the Kurdish Cultural Center, in a commercial area that is the center of life for the Kurdish community in the French capital.