Five people, including two migrants and two security guards, were killed on Friday night in several shootings. These all occurred near the northern French town of Dunkirk, close to the Belgian border.
The local fire brigade was called to the scene in Wormhout, a commune in northern France, on Saturday afternoon. Upon arrival, emergency services found a deceased man on the public road. The victim – said to be a 29-year-old manager of a local transport firm – had multiple injuries, including gunshot wounds to his head. He died at the scene.
A little later in the afternoon, firefighters were called to assist with possible injuries in a shooting near Loon-Plage, to the west of Dunkirk and just a few kilometres from Wormhout. There, four people were shot dead. This included two migrants of Kurdish origin, who were found on a public road not far from a migrant camp.
According to the mayor of Loon-Plage, Eric Rommel, the incidents occurred at two different locations: the security guards working for a security firm were shot while patrolling the port area in the industrial zone, and the migrants were killed between Dunkirk and Loon-Plage.
Later in the evening, the suspected perpetrator, believed to be 22 years old, turned himself in to the police in Ghyvelde, another nearby town located closer to the Belgian border. Here, he was arrested after confessing he killed five people. Local media reported that four weapons were found in his car.
"He is accused of multiple murders along the Dunkirk coast," the prefecture reported to local media. The exact circumstances of the incidents are still unknown. A judicial investigation has been opened.
