{"text":[[{"start":7.28,"text":"A gunman killed one person and injured five others, including a 12-year-old girl, on Friday in a town outside Paris, in an attack that French President Emmanuel Macron said was racially motivated."}],[{"start":19.48,"text":"Armed with an automatic weapon, the assailant shot the people from his car in Trappes, about 30km west of the French capital. He opened fire at different locations including a playground and a petrol station."}],[{"start":31.56,"text":"Armed police intercepted the assailant to stop what the interior minister Laurent Nuñez called “a murderous rampage”. Prosecutors later identified him as “Kévin T”, who was born in 1987 and whose criminal record included four expunged convictions."}],[{"start":47,"text":"He is now being questioned by investigators. When police searched his apartment, they found that it was booby-trapped with gas canisters attached to a detonator."}],[{"start":56.24,"text":"“What happened today is a terrorist and racist attack,” said Macron on Friday night in Trappes. “The victims were targeted because of the colour of their skin or what was assumed to be their religion.”"}],[{"start":67.32,"text":"Ali Rabeh, the mayor of Trappes, had earlier said the person who died was of African origin and one of the injured was of North African origin, without providing details for the other victims."}],[{"start":78.04,"text":"“The investigation will clarify all of this, but I think there’s little risk of my being proven wrong in what I’m telling you: that this was probably one of the first attempted mass killings with Islamophobic and racist overtones.”"}],[{"start":89.82,"text":"The national anti-terrorism prosecutor said in a statement that it had opened a murder and terrorism investigation, including whether “the acts were committed on account of the victims’ actual or perceived membership of a particular race, ethnicity, nationality or religion”."}],[{"start":105.32,"text":"Nuñez said the victims remained in critical condition on Friday afternoon. He did not confirm the identity or race of the victims. Macron said the 12-year-old girl was fighting for her life in the hospital. French media said she had been shot eight times."}],[{"start":119.72,"text":"Mass shootings targeting the public are rare in France, where gun ownership is tightly regulated."}],[{"start":124.84,"text":"Trappes is a working-class town with a population of 35,000, about one-third of which is foreign born, according to statistics agency Insee."}],[{"start":133.48,"text":"It attracted national attention during the rise of Isis in Syria and Iraq, when dozens of residents reportedly left to join jihadist groups from 2014 to 2016. French parliamentary inquiries and court records have documented recruitment networks and attempted departures from the town."}],[{"start":151.88,"text":"France’s far right has repeatedly portrayed Trappes as a stronghold of radical Islam, often sparring with its leftwing mayor, Rabeh."}],[{"start":159.96,"text":"In 2021, Jordan Bardella, the party chief of the far-right Rassemblement National, then called Trappes “a miniature Islamic republic” and called for Rabeh’s removal."}],[{"start":170.32,"text":"On Friday, Bardella extended his condolences to the victims’ families and local residents. “In the face of this barbaric act of unprecedented gravity, the judicial sanction must be unrelenting,” he wrote on X."}],[{"start":182.92,"text":"Rabeh warned that the politicians who vilify “Arabs and Muslim . . . well their words kill people”."}],[{"start":189.32,"text":"Politicians from across the political spectrum condemned the attacks."}],[{"start":192.96,"text":"Tensions are high in France after unrest and looting spiralled out of previously peaceful protests last weekend. The government and police have been racing to prepare for another round of protests planned for Saturday and have said 70,000 officers will be deployed to prevent further violence."}],[{"start":208.18,"text":"A particular focus will be on the city of Orléans in central France, where the Rassemblement National is holding its party congress. Leftwing groups, parties and labour unions are planning a counter-protest that could attract up to 30,000 people, prompting authorities to deploy a large security force to prevent clashes."}],[{"start":227.64,"text":"After the chaos that spun out of the protests last Saturday, far-right politicians such as Éric Zemmour openly blamed Arab and Muslim people for the looting, saying a “horde of barbarians” had descended on cities from low-income banlieues on the outskirts. Bardella and his boss Marine Le Pen also drew a connection to immigration."}],[{"start":246.16,"text":"Macron condemned such positions on Friday and warned that “racism has taken hold in mainstream public discourse”."}],[{"start":252.68,"text":"“Racism kills,” wrote far-left presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon on X, adding that all French citizens should be outraged by this “heinous crime”."}],[{"start":268.28,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1792805662_1929.mp3"}