PARIS - A 69-year-old gunman who opened fire at a Kurdish cultural centre and a hairdressing salon in central Paris had previously been charged with racist violence, a prosecutor said on Friday.

He was suspected of attacking at least two migrants with a knife in a Paris camp on Dec 8, 2021, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau told reporters.

In that attack, the Frenchman, a retired train driver, was also believed to have damaged several tents in the migrant camp located at the Bercy park in eastern Paris, she said.

He was subsequently charged with premeditated armed violence with a racist motive, and placed in detention, the prosecutor said, adding that the man had been released only recently.

She said the question of whether Friday’s attack was motivated by racism “will obviously form part of our investigations which are starting now with the deployment of large numbers of people,” she said.

Three people died on Friday after the shooting in a central district of the French capital, with three others injured.

All three people killed were members of the local Kurdish community, said Mr David Andic, the lawyer of the Kurdish centre where the attack took place. AFP, REUTERS