French anti-terror investigators take over knife rampage probe

[rooster59]

French anti-terror investigators take over knife rampage probe

By Simon Carraud and Matthieu Protard

 

French police and firefighters are seen in front of the Paris Police headquarters in Paris, France, October 3, 2019. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann

 

PARIS (Reuters) - France's anti-terror prosecutor has taken over the lead in investigating a knife attack in which an IT worker at police headquarters in Paris killed four co-workers before a police officer shot him dead.

 

Officials have not said there was a terror motive behind Thursday's attack in the centre of Paris near Notre-Dame cathedral, but the decision to hand the case to anti-terror prosecutors usually indicates a terrorism link is the focus of inquiries.

 

A judicial source close to the investigation said the anti-terror prosecutor took over the investigation following the interrogation of several of the attacker's close associates, including his wife, and an examination of his cellphone.

 

The 45-year-old attacker, who had worked at the police headquarters for several years, had converted to Islam around 18 months ago, French media reported.

 

At lunchtime on Thursday he went on a rampage that spanned two floors of the headquarters building, killing three police officers and an administrative worker, and wounding at least one other, before being shot dead.

 

"Based on the information gathered at this stage in the investigation by investigators in the criminal unit, the national anti-terrorist prosecutor has this evening taken on the case," a prosecutor's office spokesman said.

 

The attack took place on the historic Ile de la Cite island in the River Seine. The area was locked down after the attack, with armed security personnel in camouflage gear patrolling a bridge over the river.

 

The attacker's wife on Thursday was taken into police custody but not charged. During interviews with police, she described how her husband had heard voices on Wednesday night, according to the source close to the investigation.

 

A second source informed about the investigation said the attacker was believed to have had an "attack of insanity" that led him to carry out the attack.

 

The killer, identified by sources close to the investigation as Mickael H., had previously given his employers and co-workers no cause for concern about his behaviour, officials said.

 

MULTIPLE CASUALTIES

 

In the past four years, the French capital has been rocked by major attacks resulting in mass casualties.

 

Co-ordinated bombings and shootings by Islamist militants in November 2015 at the Bataclan theatre and other locations around Paris killed 130 people in the deadliest attacks in France since World War Two.

 

The knife attack unfolded just after midday on Thursday when the attacker, on the first floor of the police headquarters, used a kitchen knife to stab three policemen before taking the stairs down to the ground floor of the building.

 

On the staircase he came across two women staff, according to Le Parisien newspaper, which cited an internal police report on the incident. He stabbed both of them, fatally wounding one.

 

He then moved out into the courtyard of the police headquarters. There, according to the Parisien account, a policeman responsible for security at the building issued several warnings, then fired several shots at the attacker, including to his head, killing him.

 

The officer used a Heckler & Koch G-36 assault rifle, the newspaper reported.

 

The police officer who halted the attack had recently completed his training and had been in the job for only six days, Paris police chief Didier Lallement told reporters.

 

(Writing by Christian Lowe, Sudip Kar-Gupta and Matthieu Protard; Editing by Alex Richardson and Jonathan Oatis)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-10-05

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[RichardColeman]

Just doing what the cult of Islam is doing throughout the world

[sunnyboy2018]

A recently converted/radicalised muslim smuggled a porcelain knife to avoid metal detectors, into his workplace and having heard voices in his head the night before stabbed people to death. As usual the authorities tried to cover up this act of islamic terrorism by pretending it was a 'normal' crime but they could not sustain the deceit.

[observer90210]

Some thoughts on reading the topic and our fellow posters here.

 

- Wonder why the USA is still giving military backup to Pakistan ?

 

- Paris seems to be in a security mess. When it's not the violent riots in the streets from activits or social unrests, it's the terror attacks.

 

- In todays trouble times, anybody can get radicalised. It's no more your conventional suicide bomber with a long beard, dark shades, an OLP scarf and an explosive belt with braces ....it can be John Smith the nice caucasian from next door, who will suddenly show his indoctrination with terror. In this case it was a french national of african ethiniciy, originally from a french colony territory island

 

- Terror attacks, radicalisation or fundamentalism are no longer reserved for islamists. It also spreads and breeds fanatical white supremacists who are as deadly, despicable and deserve equal monitoring and erradication, as much as the islamist extremists.

[metisdead]

Off topic baiting posts and the replies have been removed. 

 

A post in violation of fair use policy has been removed as well as a reply.

[dabhand]

Rather graphic details of the attack,and the prior actions of the perpetrator, are noted in this Guardian article. Can only imagine the horror of the victims as the attack unfolded.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/05/paris-police-attacker-a-radicalised-islamist-says-french-prosecutor

[Scott]

A post from a unapproved source has been removed.

 

[simple1]

Now mentioned in MSM the killer was known to have been a supporter of Salafi ideology and to have had access to counter terrorism intelligence. Bet the s@#$ will hit the fan with some being fired.

[Orton Rd]

The MSM being what Aljazeera?

[Opl]

2 hours ago, simple1 said:

Now mentioned in MSM the killer was known to have been a supporter of Salafi ideology and to have had access to counter terrorism intelligence. Bet the s@#$ will hit the fan with some being fired.

just in everyday life, if you're not a muslim living in a non muslim country, in a democracy, how do you know the driver of the bus, the deivery man in his truck,  your collegue in the office is a salafi, and how do you know if an identified salafi is a potential terrorist? And if you don't speak arabic, how can you understand people chating sitting next to you are not  "Charlie" and refer to Jews as "sionists" etc, etc??? and if ever you have doubts and express them then you'll be labelled if not denounced as islamophobic, racist righy-winger, center-right, whatever… that's the problem we have, because of the islamisation of radicalisation. Back to the case, he converted about a decade ago, then radicalized, turned his frustration of the day into revenge by killing. Of course there will be conséquences on everyday life, people will think twice and take some précautions. Prevention is better  than cure. And the first to be fired are the imams of the mosque in cause , and its public scrutinized because they shut up, non mentioning neighborhood, family and friends…now highly suspicious.                 

[Rimmer]

A baiting troll post has been removed

[Scott]

Off-topic post removed.

 

[RideJocky]

On 10/5/2019 at 4:55 PM, observer90210 said:

It also spreads and breeds fanatical white supremacists who are as deadly, despicable and deserve equal monitoring and erradication, as much as the islamist extremists.

Do you have any data that supports this? 

[observer90210]

On 11/30/2019 at 12:08 AM, RideJocky said:

Do you have any data that supports this? 

Do you have any stats that do not ?