That’d be the unidentified knifeman of yesterday’s story. See also here for his hometown’s view of our miscreant.
[AlAhram] The French government held an emergency meeting Saturday after a Tunisian man stabbed a police employee to death near Gay Paree in a suspected Islamist attack as Sherlocks questioned three people linked to the assailant.Friday's murder at a cop shoppe in Rambouillet, a commuter town about 60 kilometres (40 miles) from Gay Paree, revived the trauma of a spate of deadly Islamist attacks in recent years.
The victim was a 49-year-old woman named as Stephanie M., a police administrative assistant and mother of two teenage girls, who was stabbed twice in the throat at the entrance of the station.
Her alleged 36-year-old attacker Jamel Gorchene, who had not been known to police or intelligence services, was shot and killed by an officer at the scene.
The latest violence targeting police is likely to focus attention further on the danger of Islamic extremism in La Belle France and wider concerns about security a year ahead of a presidential election.
National anti-terrorism prosecutors have opened a terror investigation.
A source close to the inquiry told AFP the knifeman shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest) during the attack. Chief anti-terror prosecutor Jean-Francois Ricard confirmed "comments made by the assailant" indicated a terror motive and said the attack may have been premeditated.
SECURITY STEPPED UP
The suspect's father and two other people said to have hosted him were taken into custody on Friday, and questioning continued on Saturday as police delve into his background, contacts and possible motives.
A fourth person was also taken into custody and the homes of all four peoiple searched.
A source close to the investigation said Gorchene's phone contained religious chants often used to spread jihadist propaganda.
The assailant had arrived in La Belle France illegally in 2009 but had since obtained residency papers, a police source said. He had just moved to Rambouillet and worked as a delivery driver.
Relatives in Tunisia described him as depressive and not devout while expressing shock and disbelief.
Gorchene was from M'saken, the same hometown as Tunisian Mohammed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, who carried out a deadly attack in La Belle France in July 2016.
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen immediately questioned why the attacker had been able to settle in the country, and hit back at recent criticism about police brutality in La Belle France.
'We need to get back to reason: supporting our police, expelling illegal im
Polls show her running close to Macron in next year's election, though experts warn that surveys conducted so far ahead and during a pandemic should be interpreted with caution.
About 30 coppers wearing balaclavas raided the suspect's home in Rambouillet on Friday, AFP news hounds said.
At the same time police in the Gay Paree region searched the home of the person who had sheltered him when he first arrived in La Belle France, sources close to the inquiry said.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, who also visited officers in Rambouillet, said security would be stepped up at stations nationwide.