Shooting Near Paris Kills One and Wounds Five; Officials Call It Terrorist Crime
A gunman killed one person and wounded five others, including a 12-year-old girl, in the towns of Trappes and La Verrière, near Paris, on October 23, 2026, according to Al Jazeera.
The shooting began at about 10:30 a.m. local time and lasted about 15 minutes. The gunman fired at a petrol station, a medical centre and a children's playground. France 24 described it as a drive-by shooting and reported that French prosecutors were investigating it as a suspected terror attack.
The person killed was identified as Pengo Bassio Wangi, a martial arts fighter, according to WBOC. Prosecutors said three of the five injured people were in critical condition.
Police arrested the suspect, 39-year-old Kevin T. Local MP Laurent Mazaury said the suspect had told police he wanted to "kill foreigners." Prosecutors said they were investigating whether he had conspired with a terrorist group, and that a member of his family circle had been taken into custody.
French President Emmanuel Macron called the shooting a "terrorist and racist attack." He visited Trappes after the attack. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said the investigation was ongoing but that "it is clearly a terrorist crime." Trappes mayor Ali Rabeh said the shooting was "objectively a racist attack, probably Islamophobic."
French authorities planned to deploy 70,000 police officers on Saturday, October 24, as protests were expected to continue.
The attack has also been placed against a wider backdrop of concern about hostility toward Muslims in Europe. The EU Fundamental Rights Agency, a body that monitors rights across the European Union, published a 2024 report, Being Muslim in the EU, which found that racism, discrimination and harassment continue to be a daily reality for many Muslims. In a 2025 update to its Anti-Muslim Hatred database, the agency said its research pointed to a rise in racism and discrimination against Muslims across the EU in recent years.
