Tunisian police shoot, wound axe-wielding attacker outside Interior Ministry building

TUNIS: A man lunged at Tunisian police with an axe and a knife in central Tunis on Friday before officers shot and wounded him with rubbertipped bullets, witnesses and police said.

Video footage taken by witnesses showed the bearded man brandishing an axe outside the interior ministry in the central Habib Bourguiba Avenue.

Several passers-by intervene, throwing metal barriers in his path, before a police officer shoots him twice and he falls to the ground.

A police officer at the site said the “extremist” had been trying to attack security forces outside the heavily guarded ministry, which is surrounded by portable metal barriers.

The interior ministry did not make any immediate official comment.

Lotfi, who witnessed the incident, said police “threw barriers at him but he continued to run and threaten police with his knife and his axe”.

Members of the public can be heard in video footage of the incident shouting at police to shoot the man.

A police officer told AFP the man had been shot with rubber-tipped bullets and taken to hospital.