A man stabbed and injured six commuters with a weapon officers described as homemade before being shot by police officers during a Wednesday morning rush hour in one of the largest transit hubs in Paris.
The attack, at 6:42 a.m. in the crowded Gare du Nord train station, seemed random, officials say. Soon after it started, officers were able to stop the attack, responding in under a minute, as reported by The New York Times.
“Without the extremely fast police response there would certainly have been deaths,” Gérald Darmanin, the French interior minister, told reporters, per The Times.
The scene after the fact was shown on Twitter by Clément Lanot, whose caption was translated with Google Translate, “Several stab wounds at Gare du Nord. The suspect was incapacitated by bullet.”
Off-duty police officers, dressed in street clothes, shot the attacker three times, per Reuters. The male attacker, who had no identifiable paperwork on him, was arrested and transported to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.
Five of the six wounded — including an officer — suffered light stab wounds, while the sixth is in the hospital with severe wounds, reported France 24.
A woman identified as Lilie by RTL described the experience as one filled with “panic.” She said that she was “only two meters away” when it happened as she helped take care of another woman who was stabbed.
“We were very shaken up. We didn’t know where to stand,” she told RTL, translated from French by the site. “We didn’t feel safe, neither outside nor inside.”
The makeshift blade used for the attack was described by Darmanin to reporters on the scene as “something that he might have crafted himself,” as reported by The New York Times.
Law enforcement is not treating the attack as an act of terrorism and no delays are expected in commuting time, reported Reuters.