Lyon (AFP)

Investigators are trying Sunday to shed light on the reasons that led a 33-year-old Afghan to spread terror on Saturday at a metro station in the Lyon area, killing one and wounding eight.

The terrorist hypothesis is not favored at this stage, the National Anti-Terrorist Office (PNAT) has not been seized, but it follows the situation closely, says the prosecutor of Lyon.

Nicolas Jacquet, public prosecutor, will hold a press conference at 15:00 at the TGI.

The judicial police, in charge of the investigation, face an individual who "is not very prolix" and who has changed three times versions in the first minutes of his detention on Saturday, according to a police source.

On the esplanade of the metro Laurent Bonnevay de Villeurbanne, where this asylum seeker attacked the blind to passersby on Saturday, the security cordon was raised and calm was returned Sunday morning, found the AFP.

Several bloodstains, partly cleaned, and a yellow ribbon of police abandoned on the ground, testified to the drama of the day before. And some flowers deposited by neighbors were visible here and there.

Around 16:30 Saturday, the suspect armed with a knife and a barbecue fork "began to stab in all directions" in front of a bus stop, according to the testimony of a girl at the docker stained with blood, questioned by AFP soon after the facts.

He killed a 19-year-old man, wounded eight people, three of whom were living in absolute vital urgency. And it is thanks to the intervention of passers-by and TCL agents (Lyon public transport) that he was able to be apprehended.

The mayor of Villeurbanne Jean-Paul Bret hailed the "courage" of these "people who still took their responsibilities".

In a video posted on social networks and broadcast by many TV channels, we see a man with matte skin, short black beard, well cut, sweet black hood and red sneakers with a blade and a small fork in a hand discussing with men, before throwing his weapons and squatting at the exit of a metro lift.

- Vivid political reactions -

Many witnesses were very shocked by the violence of the scene, according to firefighters. The prefecture has set up Saturday night a reception center for victims and their families in a room of the town hall of the 8th arrondissement.

On Sunday morning, no one had yet appeared, but several calls were received and processed by Red Cross agents, firefighters and representatives of victims' associations.

Local elected officials have ceaselessly called for caution since Saturday against motivations still unknown, Villeurbanne opposition leader, Emmanuelle Haziza, calling in particular to be "united face the horror".

"The information we have at this stage shows that it is rather an isolated act of a person who was seeking asylum, coming from a country very far from France, Afghanistan, maybe has lived terrible things on his trip or there, and who may not have supported many things and who is entering a crisis of madness, "said Bruno Bonnell, LREM deputy of the Rhône on LCI.

Right and far right, the nationality of the alleged perpetrator did not fail to react. "The naivety and laxity of our migration policy seriously threaten the safety of the French!", Wrote the president of the National Rally Marine Le Pen on Twitter.

"There is enough to be lenient with" crazy "+ who still look a lot like terrorists.That France asks the Afghan justice to settle itself the case of his national!", Estimated for his part Julien Aubert, candidate for the presidency of The Republicans.

In May, the explosion of a parcel bomb in the heart of Lyon had wounded 14 people, already arousing a strong emotion in the 3rd city of France, until then spared by the wave of unprecedented jihadist attacks (251 deaths) that has hit France since 2015. The suspect, a 24-year-old radicalized Algerian, was indicted and imprisoned.

© 2019 AFP