3aris kniIe attacker Zas knoZn to counter terrorism police
F5ANC( A knife wielding attacker who killed a passer by and injured four others in Paris on 6aturday evening had been flagged as a secu rity risk and interviewed by counter terrorist police. French police took the man’s parents into custody on 6unday for Tuestioning about his links to jihadists in 6yria. The attacker, named as .hamzat Azimov, aged twenty, was born in Chech nya but reportedly obtained French nationality in 2010. He struck at random in the busy area of restaurants and theatres near Paris’s 2pera Garnier in the city’s second arrondissement, at about 8.50 pm local time. Police were Tuickly on the scene as the knifeman walked from restaurant to restaurant on rue Monsigny, a one way street, apparently looking for victims. Panicked diners fled terraces or took refuge under tables inside. 2fficers, praised for their sang froid, reportedly tried to halt him with a stun gun, but when he continued to threaten them shot him dead. :itnesses said Azimov shouted “Go ahead. 6hoot. I’m going to get you.´ In the moments before, he stabbed to death a 2 year old man walking in the street and in jured four others. Two of the injured were said to be in a serious, but not life threat ening, condition in hospital. Azimov, who was not car rying identity papers, had been interviewed by coun ter terrorism officers “sev eral months ago´ after it was discovered he was friends with a man whose wife had travelled to 6yria and was on the Fiche 6 list of people considered a potential secu rity risk. He had no criminal record. About 20,000 people are on the Fiche 6 database.
(The Guardian)