Police officers began removing the red and white barrier tape that was placed on the Boulevard Richard Lenoir, only five hours after a knife attack took place close to the former offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
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Pools of journalists and cameramen remained fixed by the cordoned off Paris street where two persons were badly injured in the attack, while life returned to normal around them as people passed by, returning home from work and going to pick up children from school.
“We’re worried and at the same time calm about it, because we’re used to it,” said local Alain, who had just been to pick up his six-year-old son, Sacha.
After people were informed of the incident on Friday, about 125 schools and nurseries in the 3rd, 4th and 11th arrondissements went into lockdown. Children were asked to stay home with the windows closed. A child told reporters he was “a little scared”.
But many parents explained that they had been well-informed of what was happening by text and email, and they trusted teachers to keep the children safe from the situation.
The Knife attack brought back bad memories of the past as a man identified as Valerian, 46, father of two said he was at work when he heard that his son’s nursery had been put into lockdown.
“In 2015, our other child was at this same nursery when there was the Charlie Hebdo attack, so it brought back a lot of bad memories,” he said.
“Our older child was locked down – for the second time – in his school. You just have to trust the teachers and staff. They, unfortunately, now know what to do. This has become normal now,” he added.
Speaking to France24 a woman whose apartment looks onto the rue Nicolas-Appert, where the attack happened said, “I saw everything. I saw people running and shouting, and heard the sirens, and saw the emergency teams arrive,” she said. “But you can’t give in to fear.”
