French police chief stabbed to death outside city hall

A POLICE chief has been stabbed to death in the southern French city of Rodez in an attack that happened in broad daylight.

Pascal Filoe, a municipal police chief and father of three, was killed near the city hall building in the town centre.

The suspect, who was arrested and held in custody, was known to local police for damaging a door at the town hall in April.

Cédric Michel, the head of the union for the defence of municipal police officers, said that the suspect “had settled in the Aveyron department in the last few months and was known to possess a category one [attack] dog. The animal is believed to have recently been confiscated.”

This reportedly resulted in threats to the mayor and the police chief.

Mr Filoe died of his injuries in hospital shortly after the incident, which took place at 10am yesterday in a road next to the town hall.

Officials said emergency psychological counselling would be made available to staff shocked by the stabbing.

According to a witness, after the attack, the suspect was chased by a municipal employee and hid in a nearby shop before being arrested.

The attack sparked a string of political reactions.

“I share the pain of the inhabitants of Rodez after this appalling attack,” Gérard Collomb, the French interior minister, wrote on Twitter. “My first thoughts go to the family and dearest. Support to his shocked colleagues and national police officers who immediately arrested the individual.”

AMF, the French Mayors Association, expressed its “outrage at this cowardly act which cost the life of a territorial public servant”.