French investigators widen probe on Chechen-born knifeman in Paris attack

FRENCH INVESTIGATORS will widen their probe Monday to include possible help provided to the Chechen-born 20-yearold whose stabbing spree in central Paris, claimed by the Islamic State group, left one person dead and four seriously wounded.

The knifeman, identified as naturalized Frenchman Khamzat Azimov, carried out the attack Saturday night in a lively area of theaters and restaurants near the city’s historic opera house.

Azimov, whose rampage followed a series of jihadist assaults in France that have killed 246 people since 2015, was shot dead by police after an officer failed to subdue him with a Taser.

A source close to the inquiry said he grew up with his family in Strasbourg, eastern France, which has a large community of Chechen refugees.

His parents, now living in Paris, have been taken into custody as well as a friend in Strasbourg described as the “individual closest” to Azimov, according to a source close to the investigation.

Although Azimov had no criminal record, he had been on both of France’s main watch lists for suspected radicals — the so-called “S file” and a more targeted File for the Prevention of Terrorist Radicalisation, which focuses on people judged to be terror threats — since 2016.

Hundreds of fighters from Chechnya have joined Islamic militant groups in recent years, following two bloody separatist wars against Russian- backed authorities in the 1990s and 2000s.

Azimov became a French citizen in 2010 after his mother was naturalized, government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux told French television.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said on the Telegram messenging app that Azimov had obtained a Russian passport when he was 14, before obtaining French nationality.

Kadyrov said France bears “full responsibility” for the attack, because although Azimov was born in Chechnya “he grew up and formed his personality, his opinions and convictions within French society.”

A 29-year-old man was killed in the attack, while a Chinese man aged 34 who lives in Luxembourg and a woman of 54 were seriously wounded and rushed to hospital. A 26-year-old woman and a man of 31 were slightly wounded. Officials said all the wounded were out of danger.

Witnesses described dramatic scenes as the knifeman struck, walking along stabbing people and yelling “Allahu akbar” (God is greatest).

“I was taking orders and I saw a young woman panicking and trying to get into the restaurant,” said Jonathan, a waiter at a Korean restaurant.

“The attacker entered a shopping street, I saw him with a knife in his hand,” he said. “He looked crazy.” —