Policeman survives knife attack in Cannes

A policeman survived a knife attack in the French Riviera city of Cannes on Monday, with media quoting a police source as saying the assailant had said he was acting “in the name of the Prophet”.

The policeman emerged from the attack unscathed, saved from serious injury or worse by his bulletproof vest, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said.

The assailant suffered life-threatening injuries after he was shot by other officers.

The Algerian national held an Italian residency permit, was in France legally and was not on a French watchlist of individuals thought to have Islamist sympathies, the minister said.

“I think that we can today sigh with relief that, although they have been hit hard psychologically, no police officer has been injured,” Darmanin told reporters in Cannes.

The attack comes as President Emmanuel Macron tries to persuade voters that his government is in control of security and violent crime, six months before elections in which the far right and conservatives pose the biggest threat to his re-election hopes.