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| Hunt on for man who stabbed French soldier | | | Paris: French anti-terrorism police have launched a massive manhunt for a man who attacked a soldier on patrol in the La Defense business district in Paris on Saturday.
In what could be a copycat murder attempt, the man attacked a soldier with a knife or a box cutter severely injuring him in the neck before fleeing by mingling with Saturday afternoon shoppers. The soldier is recovering in hospital.
The attacker has been described as “a bearded man from North Africa” who was wearing a Djellaba or traditional robe. The CCTV footage from security cameras showed the attacker taking off his robe and running away wearing European clothes, police officers said.
Although French President Francois Hollande, currently on a trip to Ethiopia, warned that no conclusions should be drawn before an investigation is complete, French authorities are treating this as another “lone wolf” attack.
Interior minister Manual Valls said the extreme violence of the attack suggested a similarity with the Woolwich murder in London. However, he said it was too early in the day to provide any definite answers.
"Everything is being done to arrest this individual. The attacker had intended to kill,” Mr. Valls said.
But the defence minister Jean-Yves Drian was more categorical. “This man was attacked because he was a soldier,” he told journalists. French interests are high on the agenda of Islamic terrorists in Africa, particularly in Niger and Mali. Last week gunmen presumed to belong to the movement al-Qaeda of the Islamic Maghreb attacked a French military base in Niger. Twenty-four soldiers and one civilian were killed. France has beefed up security but the Vigipirate anti-terrorist plan will remain at “reinforced red”, a stage lower than the absolute “scarlet alert” that signifies a major terrorist threat, authorities said. The murders of three French soldiers by another “lone wolf” attacker, Mohamed Merah last year is still fresh in the public mind. Merah, a 23-year-old radicalised youth who had made trips to Pakistan allegedly to obtain terrorism training also killed the head of a Jewish school and his eight-year-old daughter. Police killed him in his Toulouse apartment after a fierce firefight.
In his confessions Merah said he had been asked by his Pakistani mentors to target the Indian embassy in Paris. As a result new security measures have been introduced at the Indian mission here. |
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