Three wounded in knife rampage at Paris station

THREE people were wounded in a hammer and knife attack at the Gare de Lyon railway station in the centre of Paris yesterday, police said.

One of the victims is reported to be in a serious condition and two others sustained light wounds in the attack, which took place at 8am local time.

The knifeman was overpowered by bystanders before station security guards detained him, according to local media reports. He was then arrested.

“Thank you to those who controlled the perpetrator of this unbearable act,” said interior minister Gérald Darmanin.

The victims were currently being taken care of by the emergency services, said Mr Darmanin.

The Paris police chief said there was no apparent terrorist motive behind the attack.

“The suspect did not cry out (any religious slogans) during his attack,” a police source told the AP news agency. “He presented the police with an Italian driving licence.”

French police ruled out a terror attack later yesterday.

The attacker showed signs of having a mental disorder, Paris police chief Laurent Nuñez told reporters. “We found medicine on him which suggests he was undergoing treatment,” he said.

It was later confirmed that the man was carrying a hammer as well as a knife during his spree.

The suspect has an Italian residence permit and was in France legally.

Police did not confirm reports in the French media that the man was originally from Mali.

France’s national railway company, SNCF, said that parts of the station remained closed on Saturday morning due to the ongoing police operation, causing delays to some connections.

“There is currently an intervention by the police and emergency services in halls 1 and 3, which makes them temporarily inaccessible ,” SNCF said on Twitter.

“Traffic is slowed down between Paris Gare de Lyon and Montargis and between Gare de Lyon and Montereau,” the company stated.

Gare du Lyon is the second busiest station in Paris after the Gare du Nord and serves links to the south of the country. It handles close to 150 million passengers a year.

Paris has been the scene of several similar attacks in recent years, with Islamist extremists attacking innocent bystanders.

In December, a man wielding a knife and a hammer killed a German tourist and injured a British bystander near the Eiffel Tower.