Breaking: Mass Shooting in France Being Investigated as a Terror Attack

At least one person is dead and four people are wounded after an attack in a suburb of Paris that is being investigated as a terrorist attack.

French media reports indicate a 12-year-old child was among the victims and that the toll of injured from the Friday attack may climb, according to the BBC.

Ali Rabeh, the mayor of Trappes, said: “An individual fired shots from his vehicle at several people he encountered.”

The shooter used “an automatic weapon”, French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said, according to the BBC.

The weapon “appears to have been a military-grade weapon, or at least an automatic weapon,” Nuñez said, according to The Associated Press.

Rabeh said the shots appeared to be fired at random.

“It is a miracle that there were not more victims,” he said.

In one instance, he said, the gunman opened fire at a playground.

Rabeh said the individual killed was of African descent while at least one wounded person was of North African heritage.

The man was arrested in Coignières after shooting at people in the town of La Verrier as well as in Trappes, police said, according to France 24. The shootings took place at about 10:30 a.m.

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said the case was “very serious” and said “all resources of the security forces and the judiciary are fully mobilized.”

The individual arrested was described as a 39-year-old man, according to France 24.

He faces four charges, including murder and possession of a gun with “aggravating circumstance that the acts were committed on the basis of actual or supposed membership in a particular race, ethnicity, a purported race, ethnic group, nation, or specific religion,” France’s anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office said, according to NBC.

“The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office has taken up this case and opened an investigation,” the office said in a statement, according to Politico.

🚨🇫🇷 More tragic headlines out of France…

A shooting in Trappes, in the Paris suburbs, has left at least one person dead and four others injured.

Trappes Mayor Ali Rabeh said the gunman appeared to have fired “relatively randomly,” targeting passersby.

Police say the shooter was firing from inside a vehicle.

The suspect has been taken into custody.

Sources: AFP, WF Witness (TG) / Writer: Michael

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) October 23, 2026

“The main focus will obviously be on identifying the perpetrator’s motives — what drove him to attempt to carry out a massacre … to target our communities,” Rabeh said.

Marine Le Pen, the front-running far-right candidate in next year’s election for president, called the attack “a barbaric act whose motives must be determined, and of which those responsible must be severely punished.”

France endured waves of protests and riots in recent days and is bracing for another weekend of protests that have already led some museums to close, according to the AP.

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