Six people were stabbed at the Gare du Nord train station in Paris

Six people were injured in an unprovoked attack on the busy Gare du Nord train station in Paris on Wednesday morning.

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told reporters that the suspect attacked several people, including a French border police officer, at around 6:42 a.m., but was stopped moments later by two off-duty police officers.

Darmanin said the alleged attacker is currently in critical condition in hospital after being shot by officers.

Darmanin thanked the police for their “courageous and effective” response to the attack, the BBC reported.

“Without the extremely quick intervention there would certainly be deaths,” he said.

Police have not yet named the alleged attacker, who was without identification when officers arrested him. Darmanin said the attacker’s weapon was not a knife, but what appeared to be a homemade weapon.

Authorities have not named a motive. Darmanin added that detectives, not anti-terror agents, are now handling the case.

Gare du Nord is one of the busiest train stations in Europe and the arrival point of the Eurostar from London. The station is also an important gateway to Northern Europe.

Late last year, Paris was rocked by an exchange of gunfire near a Kurdish cultural center in the north of the city. Three people were killed and authorities are investigating whether the attack may have been racially motivated.

Shortly after the attack, the suspect, a 69-year-old man, was arrested. Authorities announced that he had recently been released from prison. Prosecutor Laure Beccuau said the man was charged with racist violence in an attack on a migrant camp in Paris last year. It is not clear why he was released recently.