Tourists were back on the Champs-Elysees early yesterday with a mixture of shock and defiance, a day after a man shot dead a police officer on the world famous avenue on the eve of France’s election.
“I needed to get out, to come back here and see the sunshine, and that everything was OK,” said Lebanese tourist Zeina Bitar, 45, who was shopping on the boulevard with her children when the gunman struck.
Nearby, a police officer laid a white rose at the site where the shooter felled his comrade with an automatic weapon, unleashing a firefight in which the assailant was killed and two other officers were wounded.
Photo: AFP
“We heard the shots and people were running in every direction, but people were calm, we were well treated and they gave us hot chocolate,” Bitar said, adding that her children were in tears.
Under a cloudless spring sky, the dozens of emergency and security vehicles of the night before had been replaced by media trucks on the glitzy tree-lined avenue — a symbol of Paris.
Passersby snapped pictures of shop windows punctured by bullet holes.
“What’s happening here?” asked Indian tourist Chaintnya Veeraghanta, 25, who had been unaware of the shooting. “I knew there were terrorism attacks in France last year, but I thought it was over.”
More than 230 people have been killed in terror attacks in France since early 2015, leading to a ramping up of security, with thousands of troops deployed to patrol key sites.
“It was scary. We heard the shots so we ran to our hotel ... and found out it was terrorism by watching the news,” said Eric Winkler, 51, an American visiting the French capital from Boston.
However, he and his 16-year-old daughter Hailey took it in their stride.
“It’s happening all over the world, also in America,” he said. “We have to deal with it, they’re not going to stop us from living and doing what we want to do.”
Bitar’s friend, Pascale Saad, 42, also from Lebanon, said she was worried about the effects the attack would have on France’s presidential election starting with its first round of voting tomorrow.
“I really don’t know what’s going to happen Sunday,” she said. “I’m afraid that things will degenerate and that people will all vote for Marine Le Pen.”
The far-right presidential candidate, who is riding high in the polls, is seen as the most hardline on the issue of terror attacks and advocates harsh limits on immigration.
Visiting from Los Angeles, 60-year-old Felix Cervantes said he could have been at the Champs-Elysees on Thursday evening, but had gone to the Louvre instead.
“I’m not afraid at all,” Cervantes said. “We’re going to stay in Paris till next week whatever happens.”
Scottish tourist Lesley Douglas, 55, had mixed feelings.
“We’re convinced that Paris is the safest place in the world, but of course we were scared seeing the policemen with their guns,” she said.
However, her 62-year-old husband Michael was adamant that the couple would visit the French capital “for years to come,” adding: “Vive Paris.”
FORCED LABOR: A US court listed three Taiwanese and nine firms based in Taiwan in its indictment, with eight of the companies registered at the same address Nine companies registered in Taiwan, as well as three Taiwanese, on Tuesday were named by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) as Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs) as a result of a US federal court indictment. The indictment unsealed at the federal court in Brooklyn, New York, said that Chen Zhi (陳志), a dual Cambodian-British national, is being indicted for fraud conspiracy, money laundering and overseeing Prince Holding Group’s forced-labor scam camps in Cambodia. At its peak, the company allegedly made US$30 million per day, court documents showed. The US government has seized Chen’s noncustodial wallet, which contains
SUPPLY CHAIN: Taiwan’s advantages in the drone industry include rapid production capacity that is independent of Chinese-made parts, the economic ministry said The Executive Yuan yesterday approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion (US$1.44 billion) into domestic production of uncrewed aerial vehicles over the next six years, bringing Taiwan’s output value to more than NT$40 billion by 2030 and making the nation Asia’s democratic hub for the drone supply chain. The proposed budget has NT$33.8 billion in new allocations and NT$10.43 billion in existing funds, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said. Under the new development program, the public sector would purchase nearly 100,000 drones, of which 50,898 would be for civil and government use, while 48,750 would be for national defense, it said. The Ministry of
SENATE RECOMMENDATION: The National Defense Authorization Act encourages the US secretary of defense to invite Taiwan’s navy to participate in the exercises in Hawaii The US Senate on Thursday last week passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2026, which strongly encourages the US secretary of defense to invite Taiwan’s naval forces to participate in the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise, as well as allocating military aid of US$1 billion for Taiwan. The bill, which authorizes appropriations for the military activities of the US Department of Defense, military construction and other purposes, passed with 77 votes in support and 20 against. While the NDAA authorizes about US$925 billion of defense spending, the Central News Agency yesterday reported that an aide of US
NINE-IN-ONE ELECTIONS: Prosecutors’ offices recorded 115 cases of alleged foreign interference in the presidential election campaign from August 2023 to Dec. 13 last year The National Security Bureau (NSB) yesterday said that it has begun planning early to counter Chinese interference in next year’s nine-in-one elections as its intelligence shows that Beijing might intensify its tactics, while warning of continued efforts to infiltrate the government and military. The bureau submitted a report to the Legislative Yuan ahead of a meeting today of the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee. “We will research situations in different localities and keep track of abnormalities to ensure that next year’s elections proceed without disruption,” the bureau said. Although the project is generally launched during election years, reports of alleged Chinese interference
RSS