Man grilled for Louvre attack

FRENCH investigators yesterday began questioning a suspect in an attack on soldiers at the Louvre Museum in Paris, but the man refused to speak, a judicial source said.

The suspect, believed to be an Egyptian national, was shot in the stomach and seriously wounded after lunging at the soldiers with machetes on Friday.

The attack was the latest in a string of assaults in France and thrust the issue of security back into the headlines three months ahead of the French presidential election.

Investigators decided to question the man at his hospital bed after his condition improved, the source said. He is refusing to speak to investigators for now.

The suspect has been held at a Paris hospital since the attack near the museum on Friday morning

Based on his phone and visa records, he is thought to be Abdallah El-Hamahmy, a 29-yearold Egyptian national living in the United Arab Emirates, who entered France legally on a flight from Dubai on January 26.

Investigators believe Hamahmy rented an expensive apartment near the Champs Elysees.

Investigators say the attacker, who was carrying two machetes and wearing a black T-shirt with a skull design, lunged at four soldiers shouting “Allahu Akbar” (“God is greatest”).

President Francois Hollande said “there is little doubt as to the terrorist nature of this act”.

French investigators had contacted Egyptian officials in hopes of confirming the suspect’s identity through DNA testing, a source said.

They also planned to contact officials in the UAE and in Turkey, since Hamahmy’s passport had two visas from Turkey, in 2015 and last year.

Police are also examining his Twitter account after several messages were posted in Arabic minutes before the attack.

“In the name of Allah . . . for our brothers in Syria and fighters across the world,” he wrote, before referring to the Islamic State jihadist group in another tweet a minute later.

Speaking in Cairo on Saturday, a retired police general, Reda El-Hamahmy, said he believed the wounded suspect was his son, Abdallah, who had been in Paris on a business trip.

He said there were no signs his son had been radicalised.

“He went on a company trip and when it was over visited the museum. He was supposed to leave on Saturday,” he said, adding that his son was married and his pregnant wife was currently staying in Saudi Arabia with their seven-month-old son.

The Louvre museum reopened on Saturday under heavy security.