Two killed in knife attack near Paris
PARIS: A man with psychiatric problems fatally stabbed his mother and sister in the Paris suburb of Trappes yesterday and seriously wounded a third person, French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said.
The 36-year- old launched his attack in a street in broad daylight before taking refuge in a house.
He was shot dead by police when he ran towards them in a threatening way, the minister said.
“It appears the criminal had serious psychiatric problems,” Collomb told reporters in Trappes.
“He was known (to police) for advocating terrorism but it seems he was a disturbed person rather than someone who could respond to calls for action from terrorist organisations like Daesh,” he said, using the Arabic acronym for Islamic State.
Collomb said counter-terrorism prosecutors were not at this stage in charge of the investigation but were following it closely.
Trappes has a population of around 30,000 and is part of the far suburbs of the greater Paris area, lying about 30 kilometres southwest of the capital.
Only a short drive from the wealthy area of Versailles, home to the world- famous Versailles Palace, the town is known for its social problems linked to poverty, gangs and hardline interpretations of Islam.
About 50 locals are suspected of having left France to fight for the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq, French security sources have previously told AFP.
France remains on high alert after a string of jihadist attacks since 2015 that have claimed the lives of more than 240 victims.
The Islamic State group claimed that “the person who carried out the attack in Trappes, southwest of Paris, was an Islamic State fighter”. but provided no evidence of a link to the knifeman.— AFP