Paris attacker born in Chechnya was in police database of extremists
PARIS – The man behind a deadly knife attack in central Paris was born in Chechnya and was listed in a police database of suspected extremists, French authorities said Sunday.
Investigators are working to determine whether the man who stabbed five people in a busy neighborhood in the heart of the French capital Saturday night had any help. The attacker killed a 29-year-old man and wounded four others before being fatally shot by police.
The Islamic State group’s Amaq news agency released a video Sunday that a jihadist monitoring group said appeared to show the suspect pledging allegiance to the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, The Associated Press reported. Speaking in French, he calls on European Muslims to attack in their home countries if they are unable to emigrate to the caliphate.
It wasn’t clear if the man in the video was indeed the attacker. The footage is undated, but a steady rain falls behind the man, as it did Saturday in Paris.
However, the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadi online postings, said the Paris attacker is the person in the video Amaq released Sunday. IS claimed the attack suspect as one of its “soldiers” early Sunday.
Witnesses reported hearing the man shouting “Allahu akbar,” the Arabic phrase for God is great, during the attack.
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe told reporters that police were on the scene within five minutes of being alerted of the attack, and the assailant was killed less than nine minutes later.
The assailant was born in 1997 and had French nationality but was born in the largely Muslim Russian republic of Chechnya, where extremism has long simmered, said a judicial official who wasn’t authorized to be publicly named.
The man had no record of arrests or criminal activity and didn’t know his victims, Interior Ministry spokesman Frederic de Lanouvelle said.
Chechnya’s leader identified the assailant as Khamzat Azimov, according to the AP.
The new revelations came as the French capital remained on alert following the attack in the city’s opera district, a hotspot for tourists. Witnesses said the man stabbed people at random before police shot and killed him. Following the attack, people were trapped in restaurants and theaters as officers cordoned off streets and went door-todoor interviewing witnesses.
French President Emmanuel Macron offered his prayers to the victims and thanked police for their swift action.
“France once again paid the price of blood but did not give an inch to the enemies of freedom,” he said on Twitter.
Charles Pellegrin, a French journalist, said he was leaving a comedy show in the area when he was told to go back inside because of a “madman with a knife.”
Then, he said, he heard sirens and what sounded like two loud pops.