A woman shouts “You will all die” when shot by police on the Paris metro

PARIS (Reuters) – Paris police shot and seriously injured a veiled woman who was behaving in a threatening manner and shouting “Allahu Akbar” and “You will all die” at a metro station on Tuesday morning. Paris Police Chief Laurent Nunez said.

France is on high alert after a teacher was killed on October 13 in a suspected Islamist attack that officials linked to what they described as a “jihadi atmosphere” linked to the war between Israel and Gaza.

The veiled woman was shot at the François Mitterrand Library station. Government spokesman Olivier Veran said earlier that passengers had reported her “aggressive and jihadist comments.”

He added that when the police arrived, “they pulled the woman aside and initially asked her to calm down but also to raise her hands to show that they did not pose any particular danger.”

“What happened next was that the law enforcement officers had no choice but to shoot this woman given the seriousness of the situation.”

The fire service, which provided emergency care to the woman, said she had been shot in the abdomen. Police Chief Nunez said that she was taken to a nearby hospital where she is receiving treatment, adding that her life is in danger.

The woman’s identity has not yet been confirmed, but she could be the same person who in 2021 threatened urban patrols of an anti-terrorism operation and was placed in a psychiatric ward due to mental health issues, Nunez said.

“This person refused to obey the summons and the police fired their weapons,” Nunez said, adding that the situation was “very dangerous.” French media, including Le Parisien, quoted the public prosecutor’s office as saying that the woman had threatened to blow herself up.

Nunez said it was found that the woman did not have explosives at the time she was shot.

The metro station on RER Line C was evacuated after the incident, police said.

Two investigations were opened, one against the woman and the second into the police’s use of weapons.

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