Man stabs French police officer; PM calls it terrorist attack
An attacker fatally stabbed an unarmed female police officer in broad daylight on Friday. The incident occurred at the entrance of the police station in a middle-class commuter town outside Paris.
The 48-year-old officer was stabbed in the neck by the 36-year old attacker who came to France several years ago from Tunisia. He was later shot and died in the hospital.
He pounced at the officer and her colleagues opened fire on him.
Prime Minister Jean Castex and Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin went straight to the scene. Castex called it a terrorist attack and tweeted that “The republic has lost one of its everyday hero in a barbaric act of unlimited cowardice”.
Notre détermination à lutter contre le terrorisme sous toutes ses formes et plus que jamais intacte. pic.twitter.com/WtConHTskx
— Jean Castex (@JeanCASTEX) April 23, 2021
Castex also tweeted, “Our determination to fight terrorism in all of its form and more than ever intact.”
The attack has revived the memories of earlier attacks in the Yvelines area, where two police officers were stabbed at their home. And last year a teacher was beheaded by a teenager in Coflans, another Paris satellite town.
