A man was shot and injured by police at a train station in Paris after reportedly making threats against his wife and children. The incident led to a partial evacuation of Montparnasse train station in the heart of the French capital. According to the Paris prosecutor’s office, the suspect, who was armed with a knife, had a history of domestic violence known to the authorities.
Law enforcement officers were present at the station to apprehend the man. Upon his arrival on a TGV train, he brandished a knife, prompting an officer to shoot him in the legs to disarm him, as detailed by the prosecutor’s office. The suspect then proceeded to stab himself in the throat, according to prosecutors.
During the altercation, a bystander was struck in the foot by a fragment of a bullet, sustaining non-life-threatening injuries as reported by Actu Paris. The suspect, before boarding the OUIGO train from Rennes to Paris, allegedly made threatening statements about his family, as disclosed by a police source to Reuters.
An eyewitness recounted that police fired two shots after instructing the man to drop the knife. The witness stated, “The police were on the platform as the first passengers, including myself, disembarked from the train from Rennes. I heard the officers demand the man to stop, and then two shots were fired.”
The suspect was promptly attended to by emergency services, and a security perimeter was established, leading to a partial evacuation of the station. The prosecutor’s office indicated that the man, who had received an 18-month suspended sentence in September for multiple alleged domestic violence incidents, was swiftly taken into custody.
Furthermore, the prosecutor’s office announced the initiation of two investigations: one focusing on the attempted homicide of a law enforcement officer by the knife-wielding individual and the other examining the circumstances surrounding the officer’s use of a firearm.
Jean-Baptise Marty, a journalist at Europe 1 radio station, described the scene at Gare Montparnasse, highlighting the intervention of police officers to subdue the armed suspect upon his arrival at the station.