Macron Calls Paris-Area Drive-By Shooting a 'Racist Terrorist Attack' as One Dies and a Child Is Critically Hurt

At about 10.30 on Friday morning, a man in a car began driving through Trappes, a town in the Yvelines department west of Paris, and firing an automatic weapon. Over roughly 15 minutes, in Trappes and the neighbouring town of La Verrière, he shot at a petrol station, a medical centre and a children's playground. One person was killed and five others were wounded.

Among the wounded is a 12-year-old girl who was hit eight times. She was being treated at a children's hospital on Friday night. The anti-terrorism prosecutor said the medical condition of all five wounded victims was not stable. The French public broadcaster reported that the gunman first shot dead a young black man, then targeted a woman wearing a headscarf, and then the girl.

The dead man was named as Pengo Bossio Wangi, in a post on Instagram by the mixed martial arts academy where he trained. The Atch Academy said he had set an example, and that memories of his smile, his energy and his generosity would remain in its walls and in the hearts of its members. In La Verrière, mayor Nicolas Dainville told Agence France-Presse that two of the wounded there were cleaners of African origin who were working at a school when the shooter got out of his car and opened fire.

Police stopped the suspect in his car. The anti-terrorism prosecutor named him as Kevin T., aged 39. He was found with a sten gun, the British submachine gun used in the second world war, and teargas grenades. Authorities said he had also booby-trapped his home with gas canisters and electric wires connected to a timer. A member of his family was arrested and taken in for questioning. Anti-terrorism prosecutors are examining whether he targeted victims for their real or supposed race, ethnicity, nationality or religion.

Emmanuel Macron went to the scene on Friday night and called the attack premeditated. He described it as a terrorist and racist attack and said it marked a turning point for the country. The gunman, he said, had targeted people because of the colour of their skin. Macron argued that racism had often become part of the ambient discourse in France and had created an atmosphere. He asked people not to let the attack divide them, called for respect and unity, and said many French people would be frightened and thinking that this could happen to them. Interior minister Laurent Nunez said investigations were continuing but that it was clearly a terrorist crime and an extremely serious act.

Ali Rabeh, the leftwing mayor of Trappes, whose family has Moroccan roots, said the man set out that morning firing at random, wanting to cause a bloodbath. He called it objectively a racist attack, probably Islamophobic, and said the victims could as easily have been his mother, his brothers or his sisters-in-law. Of the girl, he said her crime was probably being of colour, and he called the shooting probably one of the first attempts at a mass crime of Islamophobia and racism in France. He urged a collective condemnation of rhetoric that ideologically arms people capable of such acts.

The attack comes at a tense moment. Last Saturday saw some of the most violent unrest in years, with public buildings burned, hundreds of shops destroyed and looted, and at least 2,400 people arrested in cities across the country. New protests over teacher shortages, crumbling high school buildings and the cost of living are expected on Saturday.

Politics is already shaping the response. Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Rally and polling strongly ahead of next spring's presidential election, when Macron steps down, condemned the abject motive of racism behind a barbaric act. Communist candidate Fabien Roussel wrote on social media that the far right was responsible for racist hatred in France. The investigation, and the condition of the five wounded, are what to watch next.