'Passage of Violence' in Paris Stopped in One Minute

Access to transportation was disrupted in Paris on Wednesday due to what the AP calls an "unprovoked blade attack" at Paris' Gare du Nord train station. Officials say an individual armed with a homemade weapon that was "not a knife" started to attack people at 6:42am local time, injuring six in the course of about a minute. French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin says that off-duty police officers who were on their way home, as well as border police and a security agent working for the rail operator responded, firing shots at and striking the alleged attacker in the chest. One victim and the suspect are in critical condition. A motive isn't yet known.

"Without the extremely rapid intervention, there would surely be deaths," Darmanin says. "At 6:42, the first acts were described. At 6:43, the police used their administrative weapon after his passage of violence." CNN has this from a woman who was at the station: "We saw two people on the ground. One was hitting the other. People tried to pull them apart and that's when the attacker pulled out his weapon. People started yelling 'knife!' and began running away. I helped the first victim who had been attacked and I got the impression that the individual was attacking all the people who tried to get near him and overpower him." (More Paris stories.)