Police Open Fire on Woman at Paris Subway Station

She allegedly threatened to blow herself up, 'made remarks of a rather Islamist nature'
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Oct 31, 2023 3:36 PM CDT
Police Open Fire on Woman on Paris Subway Station
Police officers stand by a subway station after a woman allegedly made threatening remarks on a train, Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2023 in Paris.   (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Paris police opened fire Tuesday on a woman who threatened to blow herself up after allegedly making death threats and speaking in support of terrorism on a train heading into the French capital. It was the latest security incident in France, which has been on heightened anti-terror alert since a fatal stabbing at a school on Oct. 13 blamed on an Islamic extremist, the AP reports. Two police officers together fired eight shots, seriously injuring the woman, the Paris prosecutor's office said. The office said she was hospitalized for emergency treatment.

A police investigation was opened into the exact nature of threats the woman allegedly made while riding the RER C suburban train into Paris, the prosecutor's office said. It said she is facing potential charges of making death threats, defending terrorism, and of intimidating behavior directed at police. The woman was dressed in a long robe mainly worn by Muslims, known as an abaya, the prosecutor's office said. Paris police said officers responded after train passengers reported that a woman was making threats. Government spokesman Olivier Veran said the woman "made remarks of a rather Islamist nature" that worried other passengers.

Phrases she reportedly used included "You're all going to get it," "Allahu akbar," and "Boom," said Paris police chief Laurent Nunez. Police said the woman was shot at the Bibliotheque Francois-Mitterrand station after she refused to show officers her hands, the New York Post reports. A search of the woman found that she wasn't carrying explosives, the police chief said. The woman wasn't carrying ID papers, but she is thought to have been arrested previously for threatening behavior in 2021 and then hospitalized for apparent mental health problems, Nunez said.

(More France stories.)

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