Riots have hit the streets of Paris following a mass shooting which authorities have said was committed by a "far-Right racist fanatic".
Anger turned to police on Friday following the heinous attack which has killed two men and a woman and left three others seriously injured.
The perpetrator – a 69-year-old train driver named only as William M. – was known to have racist views and had been bailed days earlier ahead of a trial for the attempted murder of two Sudanese refugees.
Witnesses claimed to have heard the shooter yelling "I hate Kurds" as he was arrested inside a nail bar after opening fire at a Kurdish centre in Strasbourg-Saint Denis – an area in the 10th arrondissement of the French capital.
People in the city have now accused authorities of not doing enough to protect the community after the suspect was bailed despite the serious charges.
"Large crowds of Kurds gathered in the hours after the shooting, and turned their anger on the police," a source said.
"When Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin arrived at the scene, hundreds of protesters starting throwing whatever they could find at officers, while lighting fires.
"The riot police responded with baton charges and tear gas, making for very ugly scenes."
Earlier in the day, the shooter arrived in the area "armed with a gun and deliberately targeted an area full of immigrants, including recent arrivals sleeping rough," said the investigating source.
"He threatened people in a hairdresser, a restaurant, and people close to the Ahmet-Kaya Kurdish cultural centre. He seemed intent on killing as many people as he could."
Some seven shots were heard close to noon, as people fled in panic from an area close to the Eurostar railway hub at the Gare du Nord.
The shooter was subsequently overpowered by police and arrested inside the nearby salon.
The names of the three victims have yet to be formally released.
While a motive has not yet been confirmed, the city's prosecutor Laure Beccuau said the crime was being "examined for racist motivations".
In 2013, three women Kurdish activists, including Sakine Cansiz, a founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, were shot dead at a nearby Kurdish centre in Paris.
A Turkish citizen was charged with killing them, although suspicion also fell on the Turkish intelligence services.
The shooter is also alleged to have seriously injured two Sudanese migrants on December 8 last year after allegedly going on the rampage in a refugee camp in the city.
The man was put on remand in prison, while awaiting trial for attempted murder linked to racism, but he was bailed on December 12.
Restrictions included having his French passport removed, and he was also banned from keeping any kind of weapon, while under ‘judicial supervision’.
Paris housing official Ian Brossat said last year's attack was related to the anti-migrant rhetoric of far-Right politicians such as Eric Zemmour, who was a presidential candidate at the time.
"The attack came three days after a meeting by Eric Zemmour," said Mr Brossat.
"This is the result of an unprecedented trivialization of racist remarks. When words of this nature are repeated morning, noon and evening, they end up giving rise to violent acts like those which occurred this morning in Bercy.
"It is time to take seriously the threat posed by this trivialization of racism throughout the country."
It follows a series of shooting and stabbings in Paris dating back to 2015, all of them linked to Islamist terrorism.
The deadliest single terrorist attack ever in city came in November 2015 when 130 people were killed by suicide bombers pledging allegiance to ISIS around the Stade de France, cafes, restaurants and the Bataclan music venue, where 90 died.
Earlier in the year, two Paris-born gunmen linked to Al-Qaeda broke into the offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine, leaving 17 people dead inside and three outside.
There have also been frequent knife attacks on the forces of law and order, leading to the deaths of serving police.
