man arrested on suspicion of killing three people, including his mother and niece

A man is suspected of having killed his mother and her 5-year-old niece, then another person in a bank, Saturday October 28 in La Possession, announced the Réunion gendarmerie. In the early morning, the little girl and her grandmother were stabbed to death. According to the gendarmerie, the same individual then went to a Crédit Agricole branch, where he killed a person and took customers hostage. He was arrested shortly after by the GIGN.

According to the prefect of Réunion, “70 gendarmerie soldiers were engaged”, “16 people under the GIGN who finalized the arrest”. Around thirty firefighters were mobilized, he added. Seven people, including a GIGN soldier, were injured at different times during the suspect’s journey, according to Réunion La 1ère.

The public prosecutor of Saint-Denis, Véronique Denizot, declared that the suspect had been “slightly injured during the assault” and placed in custody. The prosecutor noted that “his mental state had not been deemed incompatible with his placement in police custody”. “At this stage, there is nothing to support the terrorist motive”, “the man is not known to the justice services for acts of radicalization and he is not on the S file”she emphasized.