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BBC: Orly airport: Man killed after taking soldier's gun


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Orly airport: Man killed after taking soldier's gun

  • 18 March 2017
  • From the section Europe
French police with a a bomb disposal robot at Orly (18 March 2017)Image copyright AFP
Image caption Police with bomb disposal equipment are now combing the airport

A man has been shot dead after grabbing a soldier's gun at Orly airport in Paris, French officials say.

He was killed by the security forces in a shop after seizing the weapon in the airport's southern terminal.

The airport has been shut down after what the authorities said was an extremely serious incident and passengers not allowed to disembark.

Some French media say the man was involved in an earlier shooting in the north of Paris.

A security operation is continuing at the airport with bomb disposal experts involved and a search for any possible accomplices.

Police say the dead man was not carrying any explosives.

No-one else was hurt in the incident.

Orly - located 13km (8 miles) south of Paris - is the capital's second largest airport.

Image copyright AFP
Image caption Travellers were evacuated from the airport
Image copyright AP
Image caption There were huge traffic jams outside the airport soon after the shooting incident
Image copyright AFP
Image caption Police were quick to secure the airport soon after the shooting

Police have warned people to stay away from the security cordon put in place and people intending to travel to Orly have been advised to make alternative arrangements as all flights in and out of the airport have been suspended.

Officials say the man approached a group of soldiers patrolling the airport and made off with the gun into a shop.

At that point shots were fired and the man was killed. His motivation is not yet known.

The soldiers were part of Operation Sentinel - involving thousands of soldiers deployed to provide back-up to the police after the Paris attacks of November 2015.

French Interior Minister Bruno Le Roux is on his way to the scene of the attack.

Witnesses told the AFP news agency that the airport was evacuated soon after the shooting.

"We had queued up to check in for the Tel Aviv flight when we heard three or four shots nearby," Franck Lecam said.

Shooting in north Paris

Police sources say the man was the same as one involved in an earlier incident in the northern suburbs of Paris, where a police officer was shot and injured during a vehicle check. The suspect then escaped in a vehicle.

French media reports said that a car used by the suspect was later found abandoned at the airport.


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France isn't having a good week at all, are they?

Now I'm no expert on firearms, but isn't keeping hold of your gun considered one of the basic skills of someone carrying a gun?

Edited by Policey_Man
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4 minutes ago, Policey_Man said:

Now I'm no expert on firearms, but isn't keeping hold of your gun considered one of the basic skills of someone carrying a gun?

Easier said than done sometimes...

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France isn't having a good week at all, are they?
Now I'm no expert on firearms, but isn't keeping hold of your gun considered one of the basic skills of someone carrying a gun?

The man is suspected of already shooting some police officers earlier, he could have already been armed and given the soldier little choice than to surrender his firearm or be shot himself. Particularly if taken by surprise with a pistol to his head.

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Latest on the BBC says she managed to keep hold of her weapon. 

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15 minutes ago, obsidian_eclipse said:

The man is suspected of already shooting some police officers earlier

Then how on earth did he manage to get inside an airport? Because I would have hoped his face was everywhere and security had been briefed and shown his image

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I think you're looking at things a bit simplistically, Policey_Man.

I've never been to Orly, let alone France, but if it's a major airport then you will have thousands upon thousands of people at anyone time milling around and any one individual coming to light to any other individual is going to be pretty slim.  Also, how much time had passed since the initial shooting for those at the airport to be even aware of - details, face photo being circulated, anything?

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 I am hoping you are not as naive as you appear to be and perhaps just trying to generate discussion?

17 hours ago, Policey_Man said:

Now I'm no expert on firearms, but isn't keeping hold of your gun considered one of the basic skills of someone carrying a gun?

Weapon retention is a critical skill that should be taught and practiced. However even with these skills, it's impossible to prevent a person getting close enough to launch a surprise attack in a busy public area. Once someone launches an attack the best you may hope to achieve sometimes is to simply struggle with the person long enough to prevent them using your weapon against you and allow time for assistance from colleagues. 

Besides let's face it the troops deployed to these locations must get bored, tired, fatigued and occasionally let their guard down.

16 hours ago, Policey_Man said:

Then how on earth did he manage to get inside an airport? Because I would have hoped his face was everywhere and security had been briefed and shown his image

Do you think he gave his name and personal details before leaving the scene of the earlier shooting? If not why do you think his face was everywhere? How many people do you think the security services are watching or monitoring at any one time? Even if his identity was know from the earlier offence disseminating that information to all the relevant services and it's personal is not an easy or quick task. However even if you could achieve this it is no guarantee that he would be detected and prevented from entering a locations such as this.

I really don't mean to be disrespectful but the real world really isn't that simple.

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I've not been to Orly, but I've used CdeG many times and I can well understand the difficulties in picking out one face in many 

Paris ( and I am one of the biggest Francophiles going) is a weird city ,beautiful but weird ,the centre is actually comparatively small for a capital ,but is surrounded by miles and miles of suburbs that have become hot beds for radicalisation,crime in general etc. Some (French ) neighbours keep a holiday home near mine but live in the outskirts of Paris, they have issues with ASB , juvenile nuisance equal to anything in the UK

The love of the French for setting cars on fire has reached the point where come the holidays many people who have vehicles they want to get rid of will leave them on car parks etc in the hope they will be torched 

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10 hours ago, obsidian_eclipse said:


The man is suspected of already shooting some police officers earlier, he could have already been armed and given the soldier little choice than to surrender his firearm or be shot himself. Particularly if taken by surprise with a pistol to his head.

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Fortunately the soldiers patrolling France patrol in twos, threes and even fours. So assistance would've been on hand quickly.

Edited by James255
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8 hours ago, James255 said:

Fortunately the soldiers patrolling France patrol in twos, threes and even fours. So assistance would've been on hand quickly.

... and no one bats an eye lid. There aren't letters from Disgusted of Champogny about the fact that their child saw a soldier with a firearm and now they're scarred for life. 

Was in Moutiers recently and the local regiment, the Chasseurs Alpin, were out in groups of 5 or 6 at the station. 

We all felt reassured rather than alarmed.

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23 hours ago, Policey_Man said:

France isn't having a good week at all, are they?

Now I'm no expert on firearms, but isn't keeping hold of your gun considered one of the basic skills of someone carrying a gun?

They could have a worse week we could ask the IPCC to go over and investigate the officers

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On 18/03/2017 at 15:51, obsidian_eclipse said:


The man is suspected of already shooting some police officers earlier, he could have already been armed and given the soldier little choice than to surrender his firearm or be shot himself. Particularly if taken by surprise with a pistol to his head.

Sent from my D2303 using Tapatalk
 

Only with an air pistol though, so he clearly didn't have access to real firearms. Soldiers in France patrol in at a minimum of 3 from my experience so there was never any real danger of the lunatic obtaining and keeping the firearm. 

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21 hours ago, Indiana Jones said:

... and no one bats an eye lid. There aren't letters from Disgusted of Champogny about the fact that their child saw a soldier with a firearm and now they're scarred for life. 

Was in Moutiers recently and the local regiment, the Chasseurs Alpin, were out in groups of 5 or 6 at the station. 

We all felt reassured rather than alarmed.

How dare you suggest that professional trained military personnel are able to walk around a public place armed and not cause a massacre. :)

It would never work in the UK, firearms in the UK have a mind of their own, they are far more fickle and chose to shoot people at random, curse those guns.... 

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Only with an air pistol though, so he clearly didn't have access to real firearms. Soldiers in France patrol in at a minimum of 3 from my experience so there was never any real danger of the lunatic obtaining and keeping the firearm. 

Have you seen the cctv footage? He grabs the soldier from behind and appears to hold the air pistol to her head, I don't think anyone would risk chancing it being an air pistol whilst he shouts in her ear "I'm here to die for Allah. There will be deaths". I imagine her feelings at that point was it was all over for her.

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