The French President said that the attack near Paris, which killed and wounded five, represents a “turn point” in the country, attributing it to the environment of instability created by certain speeches.
© Hannah McKay / POOL / AFP via Getty Images
23/10/2026
by
Lusa
O French President stated that the “racist terrorist alert” who today made one dead and five wounded near Paris represents “a turning point in the country”, attributing it to the “environment of instability that certain discourses are creating”.
“It is a turning point, because it is the first time in our country that a terrorist act is committed to kill our countrymen, our children, just because of the color of their skin or their supposed religion”, sustained Emmanuel Macron during a visit to Trappes, a town about 30 kilometres southwest of the French capital.
Macron stressed that the racist character of the attack, the main line of investigation presented by the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT), is based “on what the suspect said in the first hours” after the arrest, by “taking up his act” as motivated by the “skin color” of the victims.
Without naming any party, he attributed such behavior to “the speech that is being installed and creating a certain atmosphere”.
“We will not give in to ideas that settle and justify this type of behavior, or that create the atmosphere capable of justifying it,” Macron said, adding that France “never discriminates.”.
The inhabitants of the Yvelines department, which has a high percentage of immigrant population, sent a message of solidarity, asking them not to be intimidated by these speeches or by this type of act.
“ You're French, you're the youth of France, and that's our luck. Keep your heads down; the country will support you,” Macron added.
The French Head of State stressed that he has always fought “the racism that settles in the public discourse” and denounced “an increase in tension” in a country that has suffered “attacks that can lead to stigmatizing religions”.
One person died and five were injured, some of them seriously, among which a 12-year-old girl shot eight times, in Trappes, in the Yvelines department, southwest of the capital, when a man opened fire from a car, suspecting that he intended to hit immigrants.
He was “a racist, probably Islamofóbica connotation,” accused the mayor of Trappes, Ali Rabeh.
The PNAT quickly took account of the case: the body announced the opening of an investigation for “homicide related to a terrorist action, with the aggravating circumstance that the acts were committed because of the belonging — real or supposed — to a particular race, ethnicity, nation or religion”.
After the attack, the suspect was arrested in Coignières (Yvelines), second police source, who reported that the attack occurred around 10:30 locals (09:30 Lisbon).
According to another police source, the suspect, placed in police custody, is 39 years old, is listed in the court record (TAJ), but is unknown to the territorial intelligence services.
The PNAT reported that the suspect has not yet been questioned and that in the vehicle that used to carry out the shootings – a Renault Clio – a Sten type machine gun and a tear gas bomb were found.
The searches carried out at his residence in Plaisir, a few kilometers from the scene of the shooting, revealed “the installation of a trap device in the apartment, with three gas tanks and electrical wires connected to a timer”, with the probable objective of detonating when the security forces arrived at the site, explained the PNAT.
In the second statement released about the attack, the same entity indicated that a direct family member of the suspect was arrested, identified as Kévin T., born in 1987 and who, although has no background due to radicalism, has four previous convictions, whose sentences have already been fulfilled.