PARIS (Reuters) – An assailant opened fire at the central Paris office of left-wing daily newspaper Liberation on Monday, seriously injuring one person before fleeing, police and staff at the newspaper said.
The wounded person was hit in the chest, a police official said, adding that the motive of the attacker, who was armed with a hunting rifle, was unclear.
“He walked in, fired twice and left,” Liberation’s editorial manager, Fabrice Rousselot, told reporters.
Deputy editor-in-chief Fabrice Tassel said in a tweet that the young male victim, — a photograhper’s assistant — was fighting for his life in hospital.
“As long as this person is still on the loose and we do not know the motives, this represents a threat,” Interior Minister Manuel Valls told reporters outside Liberation’s offices after visiting the scene. “We must move fast.”
Police deployed outside the offices of other media outlets in the French capital.
The mid-morning incident came days after an armed intruder entered the offices of the BFM television channel, threatening journalists before disappearing. Rousselot said it was not clear whether the two incidents were linked.
Liberation’s offices near the Place de la Republique in east-central Paris were cordoned off as forensics experts investigated.
Rousselot said the assailant was apparently a short-haired man in his 40s.
(Reporting by Gerard Bon, Brian Love and Nicolas Bertin; Editing by Mark John and Paul Taylor)
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