Strausbourg terror saw MEP in lockdown
THE terrorist shooting at a Christmas market in the French city of Strasbourg last week saw Louth MEP Mairead McGuinness and members of the European Parliament in lockdown overnight.
The Ardee born MEP, who is vice-president of the European Parliament, tweeted photographs and descriptions of the scene outside on the streets of Strasbourg from her office, where she was forced to sleep overnight.
The gunman opened fire outside the city’s Christmas market at about 8pm on Tuesday night last week, shooting at three different groups of people in the minutes that followed. Three people were killed and 16 injured in the attack.
Mairead McGuinness spoke about the security lockdown in the parliament which was sitting for a plenary session.
‘What happened afterwards was that some people just stayed in the parliament. I actually stayed in my office, I slept in my office because I wasn’t sure what was the right thing to do and there was quite a chaos around cars.’ She said staff from the parliament were eventually able to get accommodation in local hotels.
Ms. McGuinness who had been in parliament in Brussels when a major terror attack was launched there in 2016, said that her thoughts where with those affected.
‘ The real tragedy is that they were people going to a Christmas market. Their families must be devastated. I suppose it had echoes of other attacks in the past.’ she said.