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The images were the same as in January 2015: shaky cell phone videos, filmed from windows on the upper floors of adjacent buildings, showing the injured, police officers and firefighters. They also showed local residents, as small as Playmobil men from this perspective, fleeing or barricading their shops and restaurants. It was around the same time as on January 7, 2015, when brothers Saïd and Chérif Kouachi broke into the editorial office of the satirical magazine “Charlie Hebdo” at around 11.30 am and shot ten people in five minutes.
And before the Parisians knew on Friday how many wounded or even dead there were this time, before the interior minister and the investigating prosecutor commented on the initial history of the crime, the old trauma was there again, the fear of terror in the city. again. Present.
As far as we know, it was provoked by an 18-year-old with an ax, who we only know has been suspected of illegally possessing weapons in the past. His name does not appear to appear in the so-called Fichier S of the French secret service authorities, lists in which radical threats and French sympathizers are made.
So why, as eyewitnesses report, did he attack two employees of Parisian film production company Premières Lignes sometime between 11.30am and 11.45am on Friday morning? Why did you choose the address 10, Rue Nicolas Appert in the 11th arrondissement for this attack, the former editorial office of “Charlie Hebdo”, which is now adorned with a fresco with the faces of the dead cartoonists and journalists?
Why couldn’t he bear the fact that the perpetrators and accomplices in the attack on “Charlie Hebdo” are currently on trial in a heavily secured judicial building on the outskirts of the city? Earlier in the week, the magazine’s chief of staff had to leave her apartment and be placed under police protection for the massive threats against her.
That Friday, two strangers, a young man and a young woman, who work in the production department of the Premiéres Lignes agency, went out to smoke a cigarette. The aggressor attacked her with a stabbing weapon, eyewitnesses denounced a brutal massacre, some wanted a knife, others saw a machete in the young man’s hands. In the end it was probably some kind of ax, at least that’s how Paul Moreira, a journalist for Premières Lignes, the BFMTV television channel, reported.
The reflexes of the Paris authorities when facing terrorist attacks: an impressive routine
Seven high schools, two universities, and five elementary schools in the adjacent neighborhoods were immediately closed and secured from the outside. No students were allowed to leave, the district mayors asked parents not to pick up their children until further notice. A psychological counseling center for residents has been set up in the 11th district town hall where the attack took place. The reflexes of the Paris authorities in dealing with terrorist attacks are now astonishingly professional and routine.
A little later, Prime Minister Jean Castex joined the Interior Ministry’s crisis team, then visited the crime scene and assured the French that they would use all available means to combat terrorism in their own country. President Emmanuel Macron followed the situation at the Elysee Palace, surrounded by his closest associates.
The trial against the perpetrators and accomplices of the “Charlie Hebdo” attack was interrupted on short notice; Members of the editorial team published a tweet in which they assured their former neighbors and colleagues of their solidarity and support after the despicable act. After weeks of discussions about mask requirements, corona tests and appropriate measures in the fight against the pandemic, a danger that was believed to be overcome was suddenly very present, terror once again threatened the city.
And the fact that after the attack a quarter and a half dozen subway stations were cordoned off or closed as a precautionary measure, that thousands of students were trapped in their schools and residents no longer dared to leave shops and apartments, no there is nothing reassuring in this case. It just proves that the Parisians expect another hit at any moment.
First the return of the pandemic, now the return of terror?
Paris has not had it easy in recent weeks. Since the beginning of the month, the use of a mask is mandatory throughout the city area, but the number of infected people increased steadily, on Thursday they reached the new record number of more than 16,000 cases in 24 hours. The first Parisian hospitals are again beginning to postpone routine operations and interventions, as they did in the spring during the strict eight-week lockdown.
Health Minister Olivier Véran announced Thursday that bars in the capital would have to close after 10 pm and that sports clubs would have to close again. Somehow, one already had the feeling that everything was starting anew. On Thursday, residents of the capital, who until now had been surprisingly calm, even downright stoic British, only referred to the pandemic. That Friday there was another déjà vu even more sinister with the past.
The only good news: the two victims are now out of danger.
