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Paris station knife attack: At least six people injured and suspect shot

French police stand guard in a cordonned off area at Paris' Gare du Nord train station, 11 January 2023
French police stand guard in a cordonned off area at Paris' Gare du Nord train station, 11 January 2023 Copyright  JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP
Copyright JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP
By Euronews with Reuters
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Police say the attacker had been taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries.

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A man wielding a bladed weapon attacked and wounded six people at the Gare du Nord train station in Paris on Wednesday morning, leaving one with serious injuries, before being shot by off-duty police officers, authorities said.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told reporters the man attacked travellers with what looked like a homemade weapon at 6:42 CET at the entrance and inside the station. Police had earlier said the man had used a knife or blade.

Within a minute, off-duty police officers returning home after a night shift shot the attacker three times, Darmanin said.

Gare du Nord, one of the busiest stations in Europe, is the arrival point of the Eurostar train from London and a major gateway to the north of Europe.

Asked about possible terrorist motives, Darmanin said a criminal investigation had been opened but that so far, no investigation for terrorism had been launched.

He said the attacker, who had been taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries, said nothing during the attack and had no identity papers on him. One of the six injured is a police officer, Darmanin said.

Police secured the area following the attack. Rail operator SNCF said trains were operating normally.

In February 2022, police killed a man who attacked them with a knife at the Gare du Nord station. 

In October 2017, a man who stabbed two people at the Marseille train station was shot and killed by soldiers.

In neighbouring Belgium, an officer was killed and another one injured last November after a man attacked a police patrol near the Gare du Nord/Brussel-Noord train station in downtown Brussels.

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