6 stabbed in busy Paris train station before attacker is shot by police

An attacker wounded six people in a mass stabbing in Paris’ busy Gare du Nord train station Wednesday before being shot and wounded by police, authorities said.

The assailant attacked several people, including a police officer, with a “bladed weapon” during the morning rush hour, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told reporters at the scene. He said the attacker, whom he did not identify, was currently “between life and death” in hospital after being shot in the chest, according to French media.

Darmanin thanked police “for their effective and courageous reaction.”

“Without the extremely rapid intervention, there would surely be deaths,” he said, detailing how the attacker was stopped within a minute of attacking his first victim.

“At 6:42, the first acts were described. At 6:43, the police used their administrative weapon after his passage of violence,” Darmanin said.

He said the attacker’s weapon was “not a knife” but likely a homemade weapon. He said that the man was reported not to have said anything during the assault and that investigators have not discovered any extremist links.

According to French media reports, the attacker first threw himself upon a man in front of the train station, stabbing him 15 times and seriously wounding him. The assailant then entered the station and attacked four civilians and a police officer, the media reports said.

Screams alerted two other police officers. They intervened while the man was attacking the first officer, a border guard who was stabbed in the back but not seriously wounded because of a bulletproof vest, Darmanin said.

The victim stabbed outside the station was the only person who sustained serious wounds in the attack, officials said. Police opened an investigation into whether the attack merited attempted assassination charges.

Video of the Gare du Nord, one of the French capital’s busiest commuter stations, showed an eerie calms as dozens of police huddled near the Eurostar terminal entrance in areas cordoned off from the public.

No specific motive has currently been suggested by authorities. France remains jittery following a series of deadly terror attacks since 2015.

The commotion also caused serious disruptions to train services at the station in the morning rush hour, according to the French national railway company, SNCF.