A policeman was wounded with a knife on Thursday near the Champs-Elysées. According to police sources, the attacker, who was shot dead by a policeman, is suspected of having committed a murder in a Paris suburb on the same day.
A man who seriously injured a French police officer near the Champs-Elysées avenue in Paris is
suspected of having killed a 16-year-old teenager earlier in the day, police sources and prosecutors said Friday, July 19.
On Thursday, one police officer shot a man after he attacked another with a knife. The assailant - identified by a source in the prefecture as a 27-year-old Senegalese national previously known to police - later died of his wounds.
On Friday, the Nanterre (west of Paris) prosecutor's office told Agence France-Presse that the attacker is suspected of having committed murder in Courbevoie, a northwestern suburb of Paris, earlier on Thursday. According to police sources, the suspect fatally stabbed a 16-year-old teenager in an apartment in Courbevoie before fleeing.
The attacker's parents told police that their son had been squatting the apartment. According to the family,
he had psychiatric problems and had already run away from his family home as well as from a psychiatric hospital.
Paris police prefect Laurent Nunez said the wounded officer
had received serious neck injuries but his life was not in danger. The attack took place eight days before the opening of the Olympic Games, for which some 35,000 police and gendarmes and 18,000 French military personnel will be mobilized on average every day. Police said a terrorist motive was not suspected, but the violence added to tensions as Paris prepares to host the Games from July 26.
Comment: A few more details from RT:
The officer was attacked in the high-end shopping district of the Champs Elysees as he was responding to a call from security personnel at a store, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on X (formerly Twitter).
A guard at a Louis Vuitton boutique had called police after spotting a man who appeared to be carrying a knife, said Paris police chief Laurent Nunez, as quoted by Reuters.
The assailant "pulled out a knife and threatened [the officers], tried to stab them multiple times, and succeeded in stabbing," Nunez told reporters who had gathered outside of the store after the incident, according to the Associated Press (AP) news agency.
The police officer was stabbed in the ear, neck and collarbone, Le Parisien newspaper reported.
The incident comes just days after a man stabbed a soldier patrolling the streets outside a train station in Paris. The assailant was taken to a psychiatric hospital, AP reported, citing French prosecutors. France is on the highest security alert as it prepares to host millions of visitors at the Paris Olympic Games, which start on July 26.
Police imposed strict security measures in the center of the capital on Thursday in preparation for the opening ceremony, which will be held along the Seine River instead of in a closed stadium.
Another knife attack
occurred today, also in France:
Meanwhile, a breaking story, also in France from today, alleges that an elderly man defended himself against attackers with a knife:
Given the worsening geopolitical situation, the spike in outbreaks of social unrest alongside these seemingly random attacks, it seems reasonable to suppose that this is just the beginning.
A selection of incidents in just the past week:
Comment: A few more details from RT: Another knife attack occurred today, also in France:
Meanwhile, a breaking story, also in France from today, alleges that an elderly man defended himself against attackers with a knife:
Given the worsening geopolitical situation, the spike in outbreaks of social unrest alongside these seemingly random attacks, it seems reasonable to suppose that this is just the beginning.
A selection of incidents in just the past week: