A man killed his mother and her niece with a knife, then another person in a bank branch, on Saturday in La Possession (Reunion), before being arrested by GIGN gendarmes and placed in police custody, announced the public prosecutor.
In the early morning, the man stabbed his mother and then his eight-year-old niece to death before going to a Crédit Agricole bank branch where he killed a person and took customers hostage, the agency told AFP. gendarmerie. He was arrested shortly after, the same source added.
On site, the public prosecutor of Saint-Denis, Véronique Denizot, told the press that the attacker, “very slightly injured” during the intervention, had been placed in custody and that an investigation had been opened for assassinations and attempted assassinations. The prosecutor noted that his physical and mental state had not been deemed incompatible with his placement in police custody.
“No terrorist motivation”
“There is at this stage no terrorist motivation, the alleged perpetrator is not known for so-called elements of radicalization and it is far too early at the moment to tell you about any motive,” he said. she stressed to the press. She confirmed the toll of “three people dead, two adults and a child aged eight.”
Six people were injured at different times during this man’s journey, according to the first elements of the investigation communicated by the prosecutor. A soldier from the GIGN (national gendarmerie intervention group) was injured. At the start of the morning, investigators were still working on the scene, and a security perimeter remained in place.
According to the prefect of Réunion Jérôme Filippini who also went to the scene, “70 soldiers from the gendarmerie were engaged”, “16 people under the GIGN who finalized the arrest”. Around thirty firefighters were mobilized, he added.
A psychological assistance unit was to be set up in the afternoon, within the town hall itself, the facts having caused great excitement locally. The prosecutor spoke of “a tragedy of exceptional and extremely rare magnitude” in Reunion.