Five gunshot deaths and a suspected murderer who goes to the gendarmerie: a man opened fire, killing four people in Loon-Plage (North) and one in Wormhout on Saturday, for reasons still unknown, the gendarmerie and prefecture said.
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The Northern firefighters indicate that they were called to intervene at 3:15 p.m. for a first victim in Wormhout, in Flanders, between Lille and Dunkirk. According to the Departmental Fire and Rescue Service (Sdis) of the North, it is a 29-year-old man, found “ inanimate on public highway and lying with bullet hole ”, who died on the spot.
The firefighters were then called for reinforcement around 4:20 p.m., “ for people potentially injured by bullets », at Loon-Plage, near Dunkirk. Two security guards and two migrants were killed in this area, indicated the prefecture and the interdepartmental Directorate of the National Police (DIPN) of the department.
Troubled circumstances
The alleged perpetrator finally went at the end of the day to the Ghyvelde gendarmerie (North), also in the Dunkirk area, where he was arrested. “ He accused himself of being the author of several homicides on the Dunkirk coast », Specified the prefecture without further details on the circumstances.
His car, a dark gray Berlingo, was parked on Saturday evening in front of the police gate, in a residential area, AFP noted. Two men and a woman, relatives of the suspect, left the premises shortly before 10 p.m., without wishing to speak.
The prefecture indicates that a judicial investigation is open. “ The prosecutor goes to the site and only the Dunkirk public prosecutor’s office will communicate on the investigation », added the prefecture. The Northern DIPN did not immediately have any information on the profile of the perpetrator, nor on the circumstances of the shooting.
Two security agents and two migrants killed
In Loon-Plage, the events took place in two separate places, Mayor Éric Rommel told AFP. Two security officers patrolling the port area were targeted in the area where they were working, he reported. And a little further, also between Loon-Plage and Dunkirk, two migrants were killed, added the elected official, without being able to give any information on the profile or motivations of the killer, who would be “ from the urban area » from Dunkirk.
On site, a large police force was deployed, flashing lights on, to block access to the Mardyck road, leading to the port area where one of the many coastal migrant camps is also located.