Two police officers were seriously injured by a man who seized a constable's weapon at a police station in Paris' 13th arrondissement on Thursday night. The perpetrator had been arrested for attacking a woman with a knife shortly beforehand.
The incident occurred just before 22:30 inside the police station, according to a source close to the investigation, who specified that one of the injured officers is critically ill. Paris' Prosecution service later confirmed this.
Paris Police Chief Laurent Nuñez attended the scene around midnight. During a press briefing, he explained that the assailant was apprehended at around 22:00 in a building in south Paris following a "very violent attack" on a woman with a "blade", Le Monde reports.
"The officers intervened and took him to the station. They made him blow into a breathalyser. It was at this point that the man grabbed an officer's gun and severely injured two officers," he outlined. All three were promptly taken to hospital. The attacker was also "seriously" wounded in the chest by return fire but his life is not in danger, noted Nuñez.
Three investigations
Paris' Prosecution service told AFP that three in-depth investigations were launched: firstly, for "attempted murder on the woman," secondly for "attempted murder on persons vested with public authority", and finally for "intentional violence with weapons by a person vested with public authority."
Nuñez did not reveal any details about the profile of the person who fired the shots, referring to the investigations currently underway. "We don't know whether he knew the woman [he attacked]," he said, adding that the police officers called to the scene had to "break down the door" of the flat.
He added that it was "too early" to know whether the evening's events were linked to terrorism, but that "an exchange of gunfire within a police station is extremely rare."
