Troops at Paris’ Orly Airport on Saturday shot dead a man who tried to grab a soldier’s weapon, triggering a major security scare that shut down the airport and left thousands of travellers stranded.
Nobody was hurt in the incident which comes as France remains on high alert following a series of jehadi attacks that have claimed over 230 lives since January 2015. Prosecutors said they had launched an anti-terrorism investigation.
France goes to the polls on April 23 in the first round of a two-stage presidential election, in which security is one of the main issues on voters’ minds.
The latest shooting also came on the second day of an official visit to Paris by Britain’s Prince William and his wife Kate. Interior Minister Bruno le Roux said the slain man had been linked to an earlier attack on police north of
Paris, in which an officer was slightly wounded, and was “known to the police and intelligence services”.
The incident took place around 8:30 am in the Orly-Sud terminal at the smaller of Paris’ two international airports, located south of the capital. “A man took a weapon from a soldier then hid in a shop in the airport before being shot dead by security forces,” an interior ministry spokesman told AFP. No-one was injured. Addressing reporters at the airport le Roux later said that the man had tried “but not succeeded” in grabbing the rifle of the female soldier on patrol with two male colleagues.
le Roux said the man was suspected of earlier opening fire on police during a routine traffic inspection in the northern suburb of Garges-les-Gonesse around 7:00 am. One officer suffered minor head injuries.