By Tangi Salaün
The stabbing of two people in Paris’s rue Nicolas-Appert on Friday brought violence back to the street where, five years ago, Islamist militants killed 12 people in the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
Two journalists were wounded in Friday’s attack in what Prime Minister Jean Castex said was a symbolic place, outside Charlie Hebdo’s former offices.
Bullet-holes in railings along the short street lined with apartments and offices bear the scars of the earlier attack, in which the assailants stormed Charlie Hebdo’s offices on Jan. 7, 2015.
A mural on the street shows the faces of the 11 Charlie Hebdo employees who were killed that day. The 12th victim was a police officer, shot dead near where one of two suspects in Friday’s attack was arrested.
“I feel like I’m reliving past horrors,” said a resident of a neighbouring street. “It’s a never-ending nightmare.”
Dr Nathan Messas, who lives opposite Charlie Hebdo’s former offices, saw police leading away a man in handcuffs.
“Once again, hatred, gratuitous hatred,” he said. “I don’t know when this is going to end.”
Charlie Hebdo moved to a secret bunker after the 2015 attack. A journalist there said the magazine’s employees were safe and that their security detail had not been bolstered.
The stabbings coincide with the start of a trial this month of 14 alleged accomplices in the 2015 attack.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-security-scene/never-ending-nightmare-violence-returns-to-paris-street-where-charlie-hebdo-was-attacked-idUSKCN26G2G8