1 dead, 4 wounded in Paris stabbings

A French police officer guards a street near the place where a man stabbed several people Paris on Saturday night, killing one. Police shot dead the assailant. Photo by Etienne Laurent/EPA

May 12 (UPI) — An attacker stabbed to death at least one person and wounded four others in central Paris’ opera district on Saturday night, police said.

French police said the male, unnamed assailant was shot dead.

Among the four hospitalized, two were in serious condition and two others sustained minor injuries.

The attacker’s motive was not known.

Witnesses said people tried to hide in restaurants and cafes from the streets during the attack.

Charles Pellegrin, a French journalist, reported on Twitter he was leaving a comedy show in the area when he was “told to go back in because there was a madman with a knife. Once back inside we heard sirens and 2 gun shots. I then spoke to eyewitnesses who told me a man stabbed multilple people at random.”

“Tonight, our city has been bruised,” Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo wrote on Twitter in French after the attack.

Interior Minister Gerard Collomb, writing in French on Twitter, praised the “responsiveness of the police forces who neutralized the assailant. My first thoughts are with the victims of this heinous act.”

In November 2015, the city was targeted by a series of coordinated terror attacks. More than 100 people were at concert hall, and gunfire and explosions killed and wounded dozens more elsewhere, including national stadium.

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