Paris - (AFP) - Hundreds of people gathered Monday afternoon in Paris to take part in a march in honor of the three Kurds who were shot dead Friday near a Kurdish cultural center by a Frenchman who admitted it was "racist".

A 69-year-old retiree admitted that he shot a Kurdish cultural center and a hairdressing salon in Paris, killing three Kurds, and explained that he did so "because of his hatred of foreigners."

A correspondent at Agence France-Presse said that small structures were erected on the pavement at the sites where the three victims fell, bearing their pictures, in addition to candles and bouquets of flowers.

The procession set off at around 12:30 (11:30 GMT) towards Lafayette Street in the 10th arrondissement, where three female activists of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) were killed on January 9, 2013 in Paris, in an incident whose circumstances have not been revealed so far.

The demonstrators chanted in Kurdish, "Our martyrs do not die," and in French, "Women... Life... Freedom," calling for "truth and justice."

After the attack, the French Kurds referred to the attack as "terrorist" and accused Turkey.

"We decided to come as soon as we heard of this terrorist attack on Friday (...) We are afraid of the Turkish community and the intelligence services," a young Kurdish woman told AFP in English, who came to demonstrate in Rotterdam and asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals.

Often described as the world's largest people without a state, the Kurds are spread across Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Iran.
The abuser had committed violent acts with a weapon in the past.

On Monday morning, the man appeared before an investigative judge in preparation for a possible charge.