Terrorism returns to Charlie Hebdo street
Paris on high alert after attack by machete maniac
TWo television workers were wounded yesterday in a terror attack in the Paris street that saw the Charlie Hebdo massacre.
A machete-wielding maniac set on the pair under a mural marking the massacre at the satirical magazine in 2015.
An investigating source said: ‘He was arrested on the steps of the Bastille opera soon after the attacks, after witnesses saw blood dripping from his clothes. He has since admitted the attack.’
The alleged assailant was identified only as Ali and is said to be an 18-year-old Pakistani refugee.
Dramatic pictures taken by bystanders and posted on social media showed him crouching on the floor in a yellow Manchester City top and tracksuit bottoms.
Undercover officers took him to a high-security police station for questioning.
A second suspect aged 33 was arrested at a metro station and remains in custody. Prime minister Jean Castex said an ‘anti-terrorism inquiry’ had been launched, pointing to the Hebdo court case now being held place in Paris.
Mr Castex noted the ‘symbolic site’ of the attack, ‘at the very moment where the trial into the atrocious acts against Charlie Hebdo is under way’.
French security services have been on high alert for an attack since the opening of the trial this month.
Yesterday’s victims – a man and a woman – were taken to hospital with serious injuries after the lunchtime outrage. They both worked for Premieres Lignes, a French news and video agency with offices in the former Hebdo building.
A witness to the attack in the 11th arrondissement said: ‘ Two colleagues were smoking a cigarette at the bottom of the building. I heard screams and went to the window
‘May France be cursed by Allah’
and saw one of my colleagues stained with blood, being followed by a man with a machete.’
Nearby schools were shut down by police with residents and workers ordered by officers to stay in their homes and offices.
Paris prosecutor Jean-Francois Ricard said those arrested faced charges of attempted murder related to terrorism and conspiracy with terrorists.
Charlie Hebdo, which was targeted in 2015 by Al Qaeda-linked terrorists after running a cartoon of Prophet Mohammed, now publishes from a secret location and many of the staff employ bodyguards.
The principal terrorists in the attack, which claimed 12 lives, were gunned down. But 14 alleged helpers have gone on trial and face life in prison for complicity in terrorism.
Aged from 29 to 68, they face accusations of providing logistics, including money, weapons and vehicles. Three are being dealt with in absentia, presumed to have fled to Syria. They include Hayat Boumeddienne, 32, who has been dubbed ‘France’s most wanted woman’.
In 2015 she gave an interview to an extremist propaganda outlet in which she said: ‘May France be cursed by Allah.’