At least six people were injured during an unprovoked attack at Paris’ Gare du Nord train station on Wednesday morning, before being shot by police.
An individual used a metal hook to attack people at the busy train station at around 6:42 a.m. local time. He was neutralized one minute later by off-duty police officers who were at the station, according to French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin.
The attacker used the weapon he made himself to hit the first victim about 20 times, according to the Public Prosecutor. Initially, authorities believed the individual had attacked his victims with a knife.
Multiple shots were fired by police officers and a security agent working for a rail operator. The attacker was injured in the chest by the bullets. He was transported to the hospital, where he is in critical condition and undergoing surgery.
The individuals that were injured during the attack include two male passengers, aged 36 and 41, three female passengers, aged 40, 47, and 53, and a policeman that works at Gare du Nord as a border police officer.
“Only the 36-year-old man is still hospitalized at this time” but is not in critical condition,” according to prosecutors.
Authorities have not yet released the identity of the attacker. However, the French Public Prosecutor described the suspect as someone who “could be a Libyan or Algerian man in his 20s.”
“The precise identification of the suspect is in progress,” the prosecutor said in a statement, adding that the individual was “registered under several identities in the automated fingerprint file.”
The French national Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office has not yet taken the case but said it was “evaluating the facts.” The motive for the attack is still unknown, reported the Paris Prosecutor’s Office.
