PARIS, April 13 (NNN-AGENCIES) — An unidentified gunman shot dead a man and badly injured a woman outside a Paris hospital on Monday before fleeing the scene on a motorbike, police said.
Officials ruled out a terrorist attack, with witness statements appearing to point to a targeted killing.
The attacker fired several shots at the Henry Dunant private geriatric hospital run by the Red Cross in the upmarket 16th district, investigators said.
“One person died and one is seriously injured,” a fire service source said.
The two victims were taken into the hospital for treatment after the shooting which occurred in the early afternoon. The man died from his wounds.
The injured woman works as a security guard at the hospital, which runs a Covid-19 vaccination centre.
Paris prosecutors said they were treating the shooting as a murder and an attempted murder.
District mayor Francis Szpiner told reporters that the attacker had fired several rounds at the man.
“It would seem that the security guard was hit by a stray bullet,” he said.
Szpiner said the shooting was “neither a terrorist attack nor an attack on the vaccination centre”.
Police cordoned off the area around the hospital, and forensic experts were examining the scene for clues.
After the attack, the hospital turned away several people who had been waiting for doctors visits, admitting only priority patients.
The hospital is situated close to the river Seine about four kilometres south of the Eiffel Tower and near the Parc des Princes football stadium. — NNN-AGENCIES