UPDATED: Attacker injures a police officer in central Paris
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French police arrested on Friday a man on terrorism charges accused of trying to murder a taxi driver with a knife while expressing support for Palestinian militant group Hamas, a source at the terrorism prosecutor’s office said.
France is on its highest state of security as it gears up to host millions of visitors, athletes and world leaders during the Paris Olympic Summer Games, kicking off on July 26.
The man, already known by authorities as someone who had been radicalized, stopped a taxi on Tuesday night while brandishing a gun in the city of Le Mans, and asked to be taken to an isolated area near Ferte-Bernard.
He then forced the driver out of the car, bound him and attacked his neck with the blade, the source said.
The driver managed to escape to a local resident’s home, where he was eventually treated by emergency services. The assailant was arrested early on Friday morning in Yvelines, west of Paris, the source said.
He is being investigated on terrorism, attempted murder and kidnapping charges, the source said.
On Thursday, a police officer was critically injured in a stabbing attack in Paris’ Champs Elysees shopping district, in the latest in a string of unrelated security incidents in the French capital this week.
A soldier was stabbed and wounded by a man armed with a knife at a railway station on Monday. Authorities are also investigating whether a man who rammed a car into the terrace of a cafe on Wednesday evening did so deliberately.
A police officer was critically injured in a stabbing attack in Paris’ Champs Elysees shopping district on Thursday after a security guard at a boutique called police after spotting a man who appeared to be carrying a knife, the Paris police chief said.
The attacker was also critically injured, the police chief, Laurent Nunez, told reporters.
France is on its highest state of security alert as it gears up to host millions of visitors, athletes and world leaders during the Paris Olympic Summer Games, due to kick off on July 26.
Paris police called on people to avoid the Champs Elysees area.
Television footage showed armed police condoning off the famous avenue.
The attack was the latest in a string of unrelated security incidents in the French capital this week.
A soldier was stabbed and wounded by a man armed with a knife at a railway station on Monday. Authorities are also investigating whether a man who rammed a car into the terrace of a cafe on Wednesday evening did so deliberately.
