Several hundred people turned out to rally against racism and the French far right in Paris on Monday following a deadly shooting last week which authorities have labelled "terrorist and racist".
A gunman killed one person and wounded five others, including a 12-year-old girl, in a shooting in the Paris suburb of Trappes on Friday.
A 39-year-old suspect, whom authorities named as Kevin T, has been arrested. The anti-terrorism prosecutor's office, known as PNAT, formally opened an investigation into the shooting.
French media have named the person killed in the shooting as Pengo Bossio Wangi, a 26-year-old athlete. Kevin T denied the attack was racist, Olivier Christen, France's national anti-terrorism prosecutor, told reporters on Monday.
Speakers at the gathering blamed far right politicians and certain media outlets for stoking a climate of racism against a background of nationwide protests which have seen violence and unrest.
Trappes mayor Ali Rabeh said municipalities across the country were holding vigils for the victims and that the 2027 presidential election, for which far-right candidate Marine Le Pen is leading opinion polls, would be decisive for the country's future.The duty of every one of us, beyond those who are gathered in this square, is to mobilise and to become aware of the gravity of the moment, of the imminence of the danger and of the peril that hangs over the French Republic", Rabeh said.
"The French are angry, I am angry, because justice is not being done correctly, nothing is being done correctly", Paris resident Deborah, 25, said, speaking of both the outrage at the shooting and the nationwide protests.
