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CRIME

French policeman kills his wife and two kids at train station

A policeman shot his wife and two of his children, aged three and five, to death on the platform of a French train station on Sunday before taking his own life, authorities said.

French policeman kills his wife and two kids at train station
Gare de Noyon where the shooting took place. AFP.
A family dispute drew police to the couple's home earlier in the day, when the wife told officers she planned to leave her husband.
   
The husband was “perfectly calm” and did not object to a neighbour driving his wife to the train station in the northern French town of Noyon, which is a short drive from their home, prosecutor Virginie Girard told reporters.
   
The wife left with three of the couple's five children, while two others stayed with neighbours.
   
But while the wife and the children waited on the train station platform, the husband appeared suddenly and opened fire. The wife and two children were killed.
   
The third child, a five-year-girl who is twins with one of slain children, was not wounded in the shooting.
   
“The attacker is an officer assigned to police headquarters in Paris who could not accept his spouse's intention to leave him,” Girard said.

POLICE

France to increase security at churches over Easter

French authorities are to deploy members of the security forces in front of all Catholic and Protestant churches for the upcoming Easter weekend, further bolstering security in the aftermath of the Moscow attack.

France to increase security at churches over Easter

France has raised its security alert to the highest level after the Moscow concert hall attack that has claimed at least 143 lives.

Friday’s massacre, claimed by Islamic State jihadists, was the deadliest attack in Russia in two decades.

In a memo sent to préfectures on Thursday and seen by AFP, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said that the “very high” level of the terrorist threat and persisting international tensions including the Gaza war and the Moscow attack mean that “extreme vigilance must be maintained” during the Easter celebrations.

Darmanin asked préfets to deploy law enforcement forces in front of “all” Catholic and Protestant churches, in particular during services on Friday and this weekend.

The interior minister said “particular attention” should be paid to vehicles parked near places of assembly or worship.

Two planned attacks have been foiled in France since the start of the year.

One involved a plan to stage “violent action against a Catholic religious building” by a man “clearly committed to jihadist ideology”, according to the national anti-terrorist prosecutor’s office.

The 62-year-old man was arrested and remanded in custody in early March, prosecutors said.

Catholics and Protestants commemorate the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday, while Orthodox Christians will conduct commemorations on May 5th.

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