Three people were killed and three others were injured after a gunman opened fire in central Paris.
The attacker targeted a Kurdish cultural center and shot members of the local community. A possible racist motive is being investigated.
A suspect, aged 69, was immediately arrested and it soon emerged that he had recently been released from prison.
Clashes later broke out between the police and a group that had gathered at the scene after the attack.
Footage shows people setting fires in the middle of the road and smashing car windows, with riot officers responding by firing tear gas.
The riots came after a man, described by witnesses as tall, white and elderly, shot dead two men and a woman on Rue d’Enghien in the 10th district of Paris.
One of the three injured persons is said to be in critical condition and the others are being treated for serious injuries.
There is no confirmed motive for the shooting, but Paris prosecutor Laver Bacau said the suspect had previously been charged with racist violence.
The incident – in which he attacked tents in a refugee camp in Paris with a sword – took place on December 8, 2021, on the anniversary. It was not clear why he had been released recently.
French Interior Minister Gérald Darman, who first traveled to the scene, said there was currently no known link between the suspect and “far-right” groups.
Local mayor Alexandra Cordbard said the gunman was also wounded in the shooting and that three places were on fire: a Kurdish community center, a restaurant and a hairdresser.
“We were walking down the street and heard gunshots,” one witness, Ali Dilak, told JEE News. “We turned around and saw people running left and right.
“And then, five or six minutes later, because we know people who work at the hair salon, we went in and we saw that they had arrested a guy.”
Another witness, a shopkeeper, told AFP that he had locked himself inside. He said he heard seven or eight gunshots.
Police eventually took the suspect into custody without resistance and recovered the weapon allegedly used in the attack. Prosecutors said they have opened an investigation into the murder.
The Kurdish Democratic Council in France (CDF-K), which targets the Ahmed Kaya Kurdish center, condemned the attack in a brief statement.
French authorities have “once again” failed to protect Kurds living in Paris, Le Monde newspaper quoted center spokesman Agit Polat as saying.
French President Emmanuel Macron said the capital’s Kurdish community was the “target of a heinous attack” and praised the “courage” of police.
The shooting comes nearly 10 years after the January 2013 killing of three Kurdish female activists in Paris, including a co-founder of the militant nationalist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
A Turkish man was charged with the murder but died in 2016 before being tried.
The CDF-K cited the historic case in its statement, saying Friday’s attack came “shortly before the 10th anniversary of the triple murder of Kurdish activists in Paris on January 9, 2013.” No official link has yet been identified between the two incidents.
A meeting between Paris police chief Laurent Nunez and leaders of the Kurdish community is scheduled for Saturday morning, the force said in a statement.
