Islamic State connection probed in French police station attack

French police shot dead a knife-wielding man who attacked three officers in a police station while shouting “Allahu Akbar” (“God is great”). The man wounded one officer’s face at the entrance to the police station in Joue-les-Tours near the central city of Tours and injured two others before he was killed. Anti-terror investigators of the Paris prosecutor’s office have opened an inquiry into the incident for attempted murder and other offences related to terrorism. The perpetrator was a French national born in Burundi in 1994 who was known to police for common crimes. The attacker “shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ from the moment he entered until his last breath,” a source said.

It looked like the sort of act called for by Islamic State. The investigation is leading towards an attack… motivated by radical Islamist motives.

An AFP report quoting anonymous sources

Prime Minister Manuel Valls pledged his support for the “seriously injured” officers who were “in a state of shock”. He said the state would deal “severely” with anyone who attacked the police. Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, who visited the scene, said two of the officers were badly hurt, while the third was lightly injured. The attacker was not on any watch-lists maintained by France’s main domestic intelligence service, the General Directorate for Internal Security, the source involved in the inquiry said. But the source noted the assailant’s brother was known to security agencies for his radical convictions and had at one point planned to travel to Syria. Cazeneuve said he had ordered “security measures to be stepped up” for police personnel and firefighters across the country. Authorities believe around 1,200 French nationals or residents are involved in jihadist networks in Iraq and Syria.

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