Technician kills four in knife attack

PARIS - A longstanding IT staffer for the Paris police headquarters stabbed to death four colleagues at the building in the heart of the French capital on a knife-wielding rampage on Thursday before he was shot dead, officials said.

A fifth person was critically injured and was being treated in hospital after the deadliest attack on police in France in years, which sent shock waves through an embattled force already complaining of low morale.

Paris prosecutor Remy Heitz told reporters that a murder probe had been opened, while emphasising that no terror investigation had begun.

All possibilities were being explored, including that of a personal conflict, sources close to the investigation told AFP.

The attacker, a 45-yearold IT worker in the police intelligence department, had converted to Islam 18 months ago, the sources said.

He killed three male officers and a female assistant before being shot in the courtyard of the square stone building next to Notre-Dame cathedral in the historic heart of Paris.

The man, who was born in the French Caribbean territory of Martinique and had worked for the police since 2003, suffered from deafness, the sources said.

Police searched his home in a quiet residence in Gonesse, a low-income suburb north of Paris, and took his wife into custody for questioning, Heitz told reporters.

“He was a very quiet person. I used to see him going to the mosque but he practised (his religion) in a normal way,” a neighbour, who asked not to be named, told AFP.

Local residents said the man had two children aged 9 and 3.

Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said the assailant had “never shown any behavioural problems” throughout his years of service.