Paris waiter fatally shot ‘for preparing sandwich too slowly’

The gunman fled the pizzeria and has not yet been caught

Police officers guard a Paris restaurant in which a waiter was shot dead by a customer reportedly angry at having to wait for a sandwich. AFP

A waiter was shot dead at an eatery on the outskirts of Paris by a customer reportedly enraged at having to wait too long for his sandwich to be made, according to multiple reports.

The 28-year-old was killed at around 9.15pm local time at a pizza and sandwich shop called Le Mitral in the eastern Paris suburb of Noisey-le-Grand, police said

The restaurant's employees and witnesses told local news media that a customer was becoming increasingly irritated after waiting several minutes for his sandwich to be ready.

The customer had lost his temper “as his sandwich wasn’t prepared quickly enough,” a witness told Agence France-Presse.

He insulted the waiter before pulling out a 9-millimetre handgun and shooting him in the shoulder, news station BFMTV reported.

Emergency services were called but despite attempts to revive him, the waiter died at the scene.

The suspect fled the scene and had not yet been apprehended by the authorities on Sunday.

He has not yet been named by the authorities, who confirmed the events but declined to make any further comment.

Police have opened a murder investigation into the incident and a manhunt is underway.

Many people including local residents and shopkeepers gathered outside Le Mistral on Saturday, shocked at the shooting which had taken place hours before.

“It is sad,” one 29-year-old woman told French media. “It’s a quiet restaurant, without any problems. It just opened a few months ago.”

'He was killed for a sandwich?' another resident asked.

Some residents told reporters at the scene that there was high crime in the area, with problems with drug dealing and public drunkenness.

Unlike in countries such as the United States, France has strict gun control laws.

However guns were used in most of the deadly terror attacks seen in the country in recent years, including the November 2015 Paris attacks.

It was estimated in 2016 that 10 million guns were held by civilians legally and illegally in France, according to figures by University of Sydney project, Gun Policy.

French police recorded 845 homicides in 2018, a slight increase on the year before.