A new investigation has been opened into the stabbing attack that took place on January 11, 2023 in the Gare du Nord, following the broadcast of a video of the attack, from illegal leaks.
We know more about the stabbing attack which injured 6 people on Wednesday January 11 in the North Station, in Paris. The judicial police are continuing their investigations and have even had to open a second investigation, given the leaks which led to the dissemination on the Internet of video extracts showing part of the attack. These images come from the recordings of video surveillance cameras and have clearly been put online in violation of the law: we see the attacker attacking his first victim with great violence: the individual gave twenty blows, with struggling. This investigation was entrusted to the IGPN.
The assailant attacked several people in the Gare du Nord with a homemade bladed weapon, it would be a kind of hook held in place by tape. The assailant was very quickly put out of harm’s way, “neutralized” by bullets, by the rapid intervention of the police officers present on the spot, in civilian clothes. But in his mad and disorderly race, the man had time to injure 6 people, three men and three women, including one person seriously affected according to the Paris prosecutor’s office. The arrested suspect was hospitalized in critical condition.
An investigation was opened by the prosecution for “attempted assassination” and entrusted to the criminal brigade of the Paris judicial police. The suspect was taken into custody on the same charge.
Gérald Darmanin reacted this Wednesday, on the spot, in front of the media. He gave the information he had, specifying the structure of the events that took place in the Gare du Nord: “At 6:42 a.m., an individual threatened and attacked people at the entrance to the station and then inside station. At 6.43 a.m., he was neutralized by plainclothes police officers from the BRF’s Night Network Network Company, who were returning home after their night shift. These officers were equipped with their service weapon and their bulletproof vest, under the protocol put in place a few years ago to protect law enforcement,” the minister told reporters. “The assailant’s journey, even if it was very short, was extremely violent, he had time to attack 6 people”, he said, implying very clearly that the aggression could have resulted in a much larger number of victims.
The Paris prosecutor’s office also gave information on the victims this Thursday, January 12: First there are two men aged 41 and 36. Note that the second, injured in the shoulder blade and hospitalized in “absolute emergency”, was still in the hospital on Wednesday evening, but out of danger. A 46-year-old police officer assigned to the border police (PAF) at the Gare du Nord is also among the victims. The latter, who was not on duty this morning, had a bulletproof vest which protected him. According to information from Figaro, wearing this vest would have “saved” him. Finally, three women aged 40, 47, and 53 were injured.
Who is the author of the attack at the Gare du Nord?
The identity of the author of the knife attack at the Gare du Nord is still unclear, but the fingerprinting carried out by the police made it possible to obtain some elements of identification. However, it is still necessary to sort out because the man would be known to the police under different and false identities, for acts of common law and mainly for crimes against property. According to information from the prosecution, communicated on Thursday 12 January, “it could be a man born in Libya or Algeria and [âgé] twenty years old”.
A police source, of which Europe 1 and AFP also reports the remarks, affirms that the suspect would be Libyan. Born in 2000, he would have arrived in France three years ago. Known to the police, he is under an obligation to leave the territory (OQTF). The Ministry of the Interior, for its part, justified to AFP the reason why the procedure would not have been carried out, indicating in particular that France does not deport to Libya. In question ? Political instability there. If the investigators continue to work on the profile and the identity of the assailant of the Gare du Nord, the formal identification of the individual risks being complicated due to the absence of exchanges of information with the Libya for its nationals.
The man’s motive is also difficult to determine. According to franceinfo, the main suspect would have first “threatened” several people before using his bladed weapon. Among the tracks mentioned, there is the possibility of a “brawl” that went wrong, the hypothesis of a terrorist attack although it is not the priority track and finally, that of a gesture committed by an unbalanced .
If the track of the terrorist attack is still possible, at this stage the anti-terrorist prosecution has not been seized, but the latter indicated Wednesday evening to be “in evaluation”. Several witnesses to the scene at the Gare du Nord said they had heard slogans pronounced during previous Islamist terrorist attacks, including “Allah Akhbar”. These elements are being checked by the investigators but the police officers also present during the attack indicate for their part that they heard remarks in Arabic languages without being able to give more details. Coming on the spot a few hours after the attack, the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin seemed to rule out the terrorist nature of the attack, in particular in the absence of confirmation of the information on the Islamist slogans. entrusted to the IGPN.
“He attacked everyone who approached him”
BFMTV journalists collected the testimony of a person present in the Gare du Nord when the knife attack occurred. “We heard people screaming. We saw people on the ground, one of them hitting the other, some people tried to separate them. And I think that’s when the “Attacker pulled out his knife. People shouted ‘knife!’, everyone started running,” said the witness. “I helped a first victim when the attacker went a little further, she was in a state of shock. I had the impression that he attacked all the people who tried to approach him and who tried to neutralize it. […] I then heard gunshots, the police reacted very quickly. […] We are all very shocked, it could have been us, it could have been anyone in this station. […] The person I helped looked completely lost, I had the impression that the assailant was psychologically disturbed”.
Another testimony, collected by Le Parisien, gives the measure of the amazement that the people present in the station were able to experience. He indicates that two security guards from the Monoprix, located in the station, approached the suspect and began to try to stop him, beating him. “When they saw that he was holding a kind of knife in his hand and was making gestures to hit them with it, they backed off. Everyone moved away and the not very tall man, who was carrying a light coat, ran away”, said this witness, then giving details of the few minutes that followed: “A few meters further, at the level of the escalator which goes down to the metro, he attacked a woman in her fifties. She let out terrible screams. It was horrible. Everyone started to be afraid, some were running to hide”.