Man wounds six people at Paris Gare du Nord station

PARIS (Reuters) -A man attacked and wounded six people at the Gare du Nord train station in Paris on Wednesday morning, leaving one with serious injuries, before being shot by off-duty police officers, authorities said.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told reporters the man attacked travellers with what looked like a home-made weapon at 0642 CET (0542 GMT) at the entrance and inside the station. Police had earlier said the man had used a knife or blade.

Within a minute, off-duty police officers returning home after a night shift shot the attacker three times, Darmanin said.

Gare du Nord, one of the busiest stations in Europe, is the arrival point of the Eurostar train from London and a major gateway to the north of Europe.

Asked about possible terrorist motives, Darmanin said a criminal investigation had been opened but that so far no investigation for terrorism had been opened.

He said the attacker, who has been taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries, had said nothing during the attack and had no identity papers on him. One of the six injured is a police officer, Darmanin said.

Police secured the area following the attack. Radio franceinfo, quoting rail operator SNCF, said trains were operating normally.

In February 2022, police killed a man who attacked them with a knife at the Gare du Nord station. In October 2017, a man who stabbed two people at the Marseille train station was shot and killed by soldiers.

(Reporting by Alain Acco, Bertrand Boucey, Sudip Kar-Gupta and Dominique Vidalon; writing by Geert De Clercq; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Alison Williams)