Paris police shoot and wound man armed with knife at rail station

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PARIS (Reuters) -French police shot and wounded a knife-wielding man at Paris’ Montparnasse train station on Friday, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.

An officer used his “weapon” on the man, who then inflicted knife wounds on himself, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

A police source said the man had threatened his wife and children in a Paris suburb before taking a train destined for Montparnasse where police were waiting for him. When officers confronted the man, he threatened to kill himself and was then shot in the legs, the source said.

The prosecutor’s office said at least one gunshot was heard. One witness told Reuters they heard several shots.

A Reuters photographer at the station when the incident occurred said the police intervention caused a crowd surge through the concourse. Police then evacuated the station, which serves suburban commuter routes and high-speed trains headed to the country’s west and southwest.

Another witness told BFM TV he heard a loud bang before panic broke out around him.

“It took me two or three seconds to realize what was happening. People started saying, ‘We have to get out of here, we have to leave quickly’, so that got my heart racing and I got up and ran,” the witness told the news network.

(Reporting by Stephane Mahe, Alessandro Parodi and Inti Landauro; writing by Richard Lough; editing by Philippa Fletcher)