Notre-dame hammer attack on police
Assailant shouts ‘This is for Syria’ as he swings at officer guarding site before being shot in the legs
FRENCH police shot and wounded a man outside Notre-dame cathedral yesterday after he tried to attack them with a hammer, shouting “This is for Syria”.
French media said the man, who claimed to be an Algerian “student”, was also in possession of two kitchen knives and other unsophisticated weapons.
One policeman, aged 22, was lightly injured in the neck.
French media cited a source close to the inquiry as saying the injured assailant claimed to be a “soldier of the Caliphate”, presumed to be a reference to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil).
The terrorist group claimed responsibility for the weekend attack in London, where extremists used a van and knives to crush to death and kill seven people, at least one of them French.
Gérard Collomb, the interior minister, said: “We have gone from sophisticated terrorism to a terrorism where any tool can be used to carry out attacks.”
There was panic when two shots rang out at Notre-dame, one of the most popular tourist attractions in Paris, itself the most visited capital in the world, as hundreds of tourists gathered at the front entrance at around 4.30pm.
Seconds earlier, the unnamed attacker had swung his hammer at a police officer guarding the site, landing a blow. But before he could do any more damage, his colleague opened fire, hitting the assailant in the legs.
Journalist David Metreau, whose office overlooks the square, tweeted that there were two “blasts” that sounded like shots, and posted a photo of a body lying seemingly inert.
Elite officers armed with automatic weapons and bullet-proof vests swiftly sealed off the main square to check for accomplices, but soon announced that the situation was “under control”.
In the meantime, surrounding metro stations were shut and passers-by took refuge in shops and restaurants while schools kept pupils indoors.
Several hundred people took refuge inside Notre-dame itself, where, according to a spokesman for the Paris diocese, they “calmly sat on the floor” until they were allowed to leave.
Among them was Dean Blair, a tourist from Wellington, New Zealand, visiting Paris with his wife Chelsy and their daughter Madison, 10, and son Cooper, seven.
Mr Blair described an eery calm, with “tension” in the air. “We don’t know why we had to keep our hands in the air but it made us feel very uneasy,” he told L’obs magazine via Twitter. “Our two children are terrified.”
When they were finally allowed to go, he said: “My daughter was too terrified to leave.”
Visiting the scene shortly afterwards, Mr Collomb said: “Three police officers were patrolling the site. A person came up behind the officers armed with a hammer and started hitting one of them.”
Keeping a cool head, his colleague stepped back and opened fire “ensuring the attacked officer didn’t suffer any more serious harm.”
He added that during the attack the man shouted: “This is for Syria.”
He claimed to be an Algerian student and was “carrying a card whose authenticity needs to be verified”.
According to France Info, he was born in 1977 and lived in the Val-d’oise area north of Paris.
Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, hailed the “bravery, the reactivity and the very great professionalism of the police forces, which ensured a tragedy was averted”.
This is not the first time Notre-dame has been linked to a terror-related incident. Last September, six gas canisters with what appeared to be a fuse were found in an abandoned car near the cathedral.
Three people with links to violent Islamic extremism were subsequently arrested and a policeman stabbed and wounded during the operation.
France is under a state of emergency and on its highest possible level of alert following a string of terror attacks – beginning in 2015 – which have killed more than 230 people.