This Monday, February 14, a man was killed by the police in the Gare du Nord, after threatening officers with a knife. The government has indicated that the track of a terrorist attack was not privileged.
This Monday, February 14, around 7 a.m., in the North Station, in Paris, two members of the security forces used their administrative weapon to neutralize a threatening individual. As reported by the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, a man threatened a police patrol armed with a knife. According to information from BFMTV, the individual was “walking in their direction” with a machete-type bladed weapon, since the blade measured “about 30 cm”. On the knife, an inscription mentioning a hatred towards the police was inscribed. This aggression or attempted aggression occurred, according to the same media, at the level of the main line train tracks. The man was hit by bullets and died.
The terrorist nature of this event is clearly not retained as the priority track. As BFMTV still reports, the attacker did not make any comments suggesting that he was acting on a terrorist or Islamist motive. Questioned this Monday by RMC, the Minister Delegate for Transport, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, indicated that the terrorist track is “a priori” dismissed “at this stage”. An investigation should make it possible to establish more clearly the circumstances of this attack. Given the seriousness of the events that have occurred, and while the terrorist threat is at a very high level in France, an important security system has been put in place in the Gare du Nord, causing delays in the departure of several TGVs and Eurostars.