Exclusive:
The gunman peeled off two shots at Choisy-le-Roi, a suburb in southern Paris, on Sunday morning, during Eid Al-Adha prayers, and police believed the shooting was “settling of scores”
A gunman was on the run today after wounding a Muslim worshipper in a crowded mosque in France.
Two shots rang out at Choisy-le-Roi, the southern Paris suburb, on Sunday morning, during Eid Al-Adha prayers. An investigating source said: “The shootings took place at round 9am, while the man was celebrating Eid Al-Adha. Two shots were fired towards the mosque and the victim was hit in the leg. His life is not in danger.”
An investigation has been opened by prosecutors for ‘attempted intentional murder’. Early enquiries pointed to a “settling of scores,” said the investigating source.
A local police spokesman told the Mirror: ‘There were a large number of worshippers in the mosque when a gun was fired.
“One person was injured, and the person responsible then ran. Emergency services attended very quickly, and the gunman is being looked for.”
In October last year, horrifying surveillance footage emerged showing the mometn two elderly Muslim worshippers were doused in petrol and set alight in separate attacks outsdie mosques in London and Birmingham.
Mohammed Abbkr, 29, is on trial accused of attempting to murder Hashi Odowa, 82, and Mohammed Rayaz, 70, in separate attacks earlier this year. The paranoid schizophrenic allegedly first targeted Mr Odowa on February 27 when he failed to recognise him, telling the pensioner: “I swear in the name of Allah you will know me.”
Three weeks later he sprayed petrol on Mr Rayaz and left him “engulfed in flames from head to foot” because he did not speak Arabic, jurors were told. Abbkr admits being the person responsible for setting both men alight but denies attempted murder and administering a destructive thing with intent to endanger life.
Footage released by West Midlands Police shows Abbkr arriving and praying at West London Islamic Centre, in Ealing, London ahead of the first incident on February 27. The video shows him following Mr Odowa out of the mosque. The next shot shows a fireball erupt on the street as Mr Odowa was set alight, causing burns to his ears and hands.
Footage from the Birmingham attack also captures both parties praying at Dudley Road Mosque on March 20. Abbkr then follows the victim along the streets at the end of prayers and can be heard asking Mr Rayaz whether he speaks Arabic. When he says he speaks Urdu and Punjabi, Mr Rayaz can then be seen being sprayed with a liquid from a bottle before being engulfed in a ball of flames. In a police interview, Mr Odowa told how he thought he was going to die after being covered with a light coloured liquid and having a lighter held to his neck.
