According to South Korea’s Kyunghyang Shinmun and Aju Business Daily, a man in a car opened fire repeatedly at around 10:30 a.m. local time on the 23rd in Trappes, in the Yvelines department west of Paris, killing at least one person and wounding four. Casualty figures vary: the Chosun Ilbo reported five wounded, and CBS News said Trappes mayor Ali Rabeh later revised the count from four to five.

Among the wounded was a 12-year-old girl. CBS reported she was hit several times, but La Verrière mayor Nicolas Dainville said her condition had stabilised. Three of the wounded were seriously hurt, one of them critically.

Nearly 15 minutes of gunfire, then an arrest

CBS reported that the shooting lasted nearly 15 minutes, with the gunman firing at passers-by in three locations, including a playground, before driving toward neighbouring La Verrière. Five officers from an anti-crime unit gave chase and stopped him, and he was arrested in the nearby town of Coignières. Kyunghyang said the suspect lived in the area.

British Muslim outlet 5Pillars, citing Le Parisien, reported the suspect is a 39-year-old man known to police for theft, drug and drink-driving offences but not monitored by the domestic intelligence agency DGSI. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said the weapon ‘appears to have been a military-grade weapon, or at least an automatic weapon’. Reports that a Second World War submachine gun was used and that gas cylinders were found at his home have not been officially confirmed.

Terror inquiry and suspicion of Islamophobia

France’s national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office (PNAT) opened an inquiry into murder and attempted murder linked to terrorism and is examining whether victims were targeted for their actual or perceived race, ethnicity, nationality or religion. Mayor Rabeh called it a terrorist attack with likely racist and Islamophobic motives, saying the person killed was of African origin and the critically injured victim of North African origin. Nuñez also called it ‘clearly a terrorist crime’, but the motive has not been officially established.

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu wrote on X that the case was very serious and that security and judicial services were fully mobilised, while President Emmanuel Macron said the nation stands with the victims. Last year France investigated the killing of a Tunisian man in the south and the fatal stabbing of a worshipper in a mosque as hate crimes, and there are fears this attack will deepen unease among Muslims. It came on the eve of large protests planned for the 24th, though no link to the protests has been established.