IS claims soldier in Paris terror attack
A knife-wielding assailant killed a 29year-old man and injured four others in a lively neighbourhood near Paris’s famed Opera Garnier before he was killed by police. The Islamic State group claimed the attacker as one of its “soldiers”. President Emmanuel Macron bowed that France would not bow to extremists.
A KNIFE-WIELDING assailant killed a 29-year-old man and injured four others in a lively neighbourhood near Paris’s famed Opera Garnier before he was killed by police.
The Islamic State group claimed the attacker as one of its “soldiers”. Counterterrorism authorities took charge of the investigation, and President Emmanuel Macron vowed that France would not bow to extremists despite being the target of multiple attacks in recent years.
Paris police evacuated people from some buildings in the Right Bank neighbourhood after the attack, which happened on rue Monsigny about 9pm on Saturday (local time). Bar patrons and operagoers described surprise and confusion in the area.
Beyond the police cordon, however, crowds still filled cafes and the city’s night life resumed its normal pace soon after the attack. The unidentified attacker targeted five people and then fled.
A 29-year-old man was killed, and four others were injured. When police arrived minutes later, the attacker threatened them and was shot dead, according to police union official Yvan Assioma.
Authorities were working to identify the assailant and anyone who might have helped him, Interior Minister Gerard Collomb told reporters yesterday.
Prosecutor Francois Molins said counterterrorism authorities were leading the investigation on potential charges of murder and attempted murder in connection with terrorist motives.
“At this stage, based on the one hand on the account of witnesses who said the attacker cried ‘Allahu akbar’ while attacking passers-by with a knife, and given the modus operandi, we have turned this over to the counterterrorist section of the Paris prosecutor’s office,” he said.
The Islamic State group’s Aamaq news agency said yesterday that the assailant carried out the attack in response to the group’s calls for supporters to target members of the US-led military coalition targeting extremists in Iraq and Syria.
France’s military has been active in the coalition since 2014, and Islamic State adherents have killed more than 200 people in France in recent years.
Mr Macron tweeted his praise for police who “neutralised the terrorist” and said: “France is once again paying the price of blood but will not cede an inch to enemies of freedom.”