PARIS: A massive manhunt was under way yesterday in Paris, a day after a gunman shot and critically wounded a photographer at the offices of a major newspaper before opening fire outside a bank headquarters and hijacking a car.
Investigators have so far been unable to identify the gunman — described as white and aged between 35 and 45 — and branded a “real danger” by Interior Minister Manuel Valls.
A police source said yesterday that about 400 calls had come in following an appeal for information from the public. “Of these 120 have been taken seriously and are being followed up,” the source said.
Investigators issued a new photograph of the suspect taken by a close-circuit camera on Monday in Paris’s central Concorde metro station, near the Avenue des Champs Elysees. It shows a man with a round face, wearing a red jacket and a beige cap, and carrying a black shoulder bag. The attacker, wearing a cap and wielding a 12-gauge shotgun, opened fire at the offices of left-wing newspaper Liberation at about 10.15am (0915 GMT) Monday.
A photographer arriving for his first day of freelance work at the paper suffered buckshot wounds to the chest and stomach. Liberation’s publisher Nicolas Demorand said yesterday the man was “still critical,” although he was “in a slightly better state.”
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