Ricochet hits passer-by Officers shoot down gunman in Paris train station

dpa

3.2.2025 - 19:03

Time and again, officers at train stations are the target of attacks. Here at the Austerlitz long-distance train station in Paris.
Time and again, officers at train stations are the target of attacks. Here at the Austerlitz long-distance train station in Paris.
imago images/viennaslide

The threat level in Paris is high and operations in busy train stations are delicate. At the Gare d'Austerlitz, officers shoot down a gunman and a ricochet hits a passenger.

DPA

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  • A man sprays swastikas at the Austerlitz train station in Paris.
  • When security forces intervene, he waves a gun around, which later turns out to be a dummy.
  • When he does not put the gun down when asked to do so, the officers shoot the perpetrator. An uninvolved traveler is injured by a ricochet.
  • The terrorist threat level in France is high and security forces at train stations are repeatedly the target of attacks.

Security forces at the Austerlitz long-distance train station in Paris shot down a man threatening with a weapon and injured a passenger with a ricochet. According to the Paris public prosecutor's office, the officers intervened because the man was spraying swastikas in the station.

The man then waved a weapon around, which later turned out to be a dummy. When he did not comply with the request to drop the weapon, at least one of the officers made use of his firearm. The perpetrator suffered life-threatening injuries as a result and an uninvolved traveler was less seriously injured by a ricochet. The public prosecutor's office is investigating the threat to the officers and their use of firearms, according to the public prosecutor's office.

Security forces use weapons without hesitation

In the event of threats, security forces in the major Parisian train stations regularly use weapons without hesitation, partly due to the continuing high terrorist threat level in France. Time and again, officers at train stations are the target of attacks. The authorities have not yet been able to say anything about the identity of the man who was shot down or his background.

Most recently, a mentally disturbed man stabbed an anti-terrorist soldier at Gare de l'Est station before the Olympic Games. A year ago, a man who was also mentally disturbed injured three people with a knife in the Gare de Lyon. More than a year ago, police officers shot dead a woman in a Paris suburban train station who had threatened to blow herself up.