Man held over café shootings

French police today detained a man suspected of shooting dead a teenager of Moroccan origin and injuring three others in attacks outside cafes frequented by North Africans.

The prosecutor for the northern French city of Dunkirk, where one of the Friday shootings took place, said the 45-year-old suspect was not known to judicial authorities and had denied any involvement.

“We cannot deny that there is a racial element in this case,” the prosecutor, Jean-Philippe Joubert, said. He said alcohol was also a likely factor in the shootings.

Joubert said investigators hoped for clues from the suspect’s hunting weapons and his sports utility vehicle, which was similar to one described by witnesses of the shootings. He said police detained the suspect at his home near Dunkirk after receiving a tip-off.

The director of public safety for the Nord region, Christian Mittaux, said the suspect fitted descriptions given by witnesses.

Mohamed Maghara, a 17-year-old French boy of Moroccan origin, was shot in the chest and shoulder and killed Friday outside a cafe in Grande-Synthe, near Dunkirk, by a gunman driving an SUV.

Earlier Friday, the gunman had shot at the window of a cafe in Dunkirk. When customers fled, he opened fire again, injuring three people, one of them seriously.

Several hundred protesters marched silently in Grande-Synthe on Saturday, and two vehicles and several rubbish bins were set on fire there later that evening.

France’s interior minister, visiting the Paris mosque, said the attacks were “obviously racist” and asked for a moment of silence to honour the victim.

“Racism is an enemy of the state, it must be fought, and racists will be punished,” Nicolas Sarkozy said.