Police kill man with knife who lunged at officers
Paris: A man who lunged at a police patrol with a knife and threatened to kill the officers has been shot dead in the French capital’s main business district.
Police said the officers were not injured in the attack at La Defense. They said the officers used their service weapons against the assailant, who died a short time later.
Reports said a security guard alerted the police about 10.30am local time, to the presence of a man with a knife on the square in front of La Defense.
A three-man patrol then approached the suspect, who started running in their direction and shouted, “I’ll kill you!” The three officers then opened fire.
Seven shots were fired, two of which hit the suspect in the chest and thigh.
The attack came two months after a civilian police employee went on a stabbing rampage inside Paris police headquarters, killing four colleagues before he was shot dead by a rookie officer.
La Defense, a district of office skyscrapers, is a major transport hub and shopping area and heavily guarded by foot patrols.
A French soldier was stabbed there in 2013 while on patrol. The soldier survived the attack.
Blankenburg: One person has died and 11 were injured in an explosion at an apartment building in eastern Germany.
The blast happened in the apartment of a 78-year-old man, whom police believe might have been the person who died.
Debris from the explosion flew up to 200ft. Residents were evacuated from the building, which has 60 units.
Officers found several containers of butane gas in the apartment in a building that was not connected to the gas network. They said these may have caused the explosion.
Police initially said military munitions had been found there, but later said they could not confirm that after a closer check and found no evidence of explosives.
Authorities initially thought as many as 25 people might have been injured in the explosion just before 9am but later lowered the number.
Blankenburg mayor Heiko Breithaupt said 11 people were injured, two of them seriously. A few rescue officers were suffering from the effects of inhaling smoke.
Inates: The so-called Islamic State group has claimed it attacked a military camp in Niger that killed at least 71 soldiers.
The extremist group carried out the assault near the town of Inates, not far from the border with Mali, it said in a statement.
Niger’s military said 12 others were wounded in the attack earlier this week.
IS claimed its fighters held the camp for several hours and seized a large cache of weapons and ammunition.
Its jihadists took 16 vehicles and set the camp on fire before leaving, it said.
Niger’s government has declared three days of mourning following the attack, which was the deadliest of its kind in years.