Attack in Yvelines: a resident recounts the rescue of a young girl
A woman from La Verrière came to the aid of a 12-year-old child seriously wounded during a terrorist attack on 23 October. The gunman, 39, was arrested with a submachine gun.
Testimony from a resident following the terrorist attack
On hearing cries for help through her window on Friday 23 October, Amandine discovered a 12-year-old girl seriously wounded. According to BFM TV, the young woman living in La Verrière recounted how she intervened with the victim, who was struck by bullets eight times during the attack.
"She was screaming 'help, help! It hurts!'" Amandine recalls. "She was bleeding." After questioning her, the girl reported that the pain was localised to her stomach. Amandine asked her daughter to bring a blanket to place over the girl and protect her from the cold, without touching her wounds or moving her.
"We don't really know what she had. At that moment, we didn't even imagine she had been shot," explains Amandine. "She didn't know what had happened."
Toll and arrest of the gunman
At around 10:30 that morning, a 39-year-old man fired in bursts from a car in Trappes and La Verrière, killing one person and seriously wounding four others. He was apprehended in Coignières, a neighbouring town.
The suspect was arrested in possession of a submachine gun and tear-gas grenades. Although registered with the Records of Judicial History (TAJ), he was unknown to territorial intelligence, according to a police source.
The National Counter-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office took over the investigation, qualifying the facts as "murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise" committed by reason of the true or supposed belonging to a race, ethnicity, nation or religion.
Source: BFM TV