Gunshots rang out at Loon-Plage, near Dunkirk this Saturday, December 14 afternoon. Among the victims, two are believed to be security agents. The murderer reportedly surrendered to the authorities and was not known to the police.
Five deaths by gunshots and a suspected murderer who goes to the gendarmerie: a man opened fire killing four people in Loon-Plage (North) and one in Wormhout on Saturday, for reasons still unknown, indicated the gendarmerie and prefecture.
The latter is not known to the police, said the Dunkirk prosecutor in a press release on Sunday. But, “several firearms were found in his car”specified public prosecutor Charlotte Huet.
Northern firefighters indicate that they were called to intervene at 3:15 p.m. for a first victim in Wormhout, in Flanders, between Lille and Dunkirk.
According to the Departmental Fire and Rescue Service (Sdis) of the North, this is the boss of the 29-year-old suspect, found “inanimate on public highway and lying with bullet impact”who died on the spot, learned BFMTV with his lawyer.
The firefighters were then called for assistance around 4:20 p.m. “for potentially gunshot woundss”, at Loon-Plage, near Dunkirk.
Two security agents and two migrants were killed in this area, indicated the prefecture and the interdepartmental Directorate of the National Police (DIPN) of the department.
He went at the end of the day
The alleged perpetrator finally went at the end of the day to the Ghyvelde gendarmerie (North), also in the Dunkirk area, where he was arrested.
“He accused himself of being the author of several homicides on the Dunkirk coast”the prefecture told AFP without further details on the circumstances.
His car, a dark gray Berlingo, was parked on Saturday evening in front of the police gate, in a residential area, AFP noted. Two men and a woman, relatives of the suspect, left the premises shortly before 10 p.m., without wishing to speak.
An open investigation
The prefecture indicates that a judicial investigation is open. “The prosecutor is going to the site and only the Dunkirk public prosecutor’s office will communicate about the investigation”added the prefecture.
The Northern DIPN did not immediately have any information on the profile of the perpetrator, nor on the circumstances of the shooting. In Loon-Plage, the events took place in two separate places, mayor Eric Rommel told AFP.
Two security officers patrolling the port area were targeted in the area where they were working, he reported. And a little further, also between Loon-Plage and Dunkirk, two migrants were killed, added the elected official, without being able to give any information on the profile or motivations of the killer, who would be “originating from the urban area” from Dunkirk.
Important device deployed
On site, a large police force was deployed, flashing lights on, to block access to the Mardyck road, leading to the port area where one of the numerous migrant camps on the coast is also located.
CRS buses were parked not far from the small tents set up near the road, in a deserted and windswept industrial zone two kilometers from the center of Loon-Plage, in the direction of Dunkirk.
According to Sdis, emergency services have set up lighting devices to carry out observations and measurements. According to firefighters, the victims could have been killed by bullets from automatic weapons.
The vice-president of the urban community of Dunkirk Martial Beyaert deplored on Facebook a “drama”evoking “five people murdered by a sniper”.
