Investigators quiz family members to ascertain motive

French investigators were on Sunday trying to establish whether the man shot dead after holding up a soldier at Orly airport in Paris had planned the attack or acted on impulse.

Saturday’s assault by Ziyed Ben Belgacem (39) caused a major security scare, leading to the temporary closure of the capital’s second-busiest airport and the cancellation of dozens of flights. By Sunday morning the situation had nearly returned to normal.

Of Tunisian-origin

Ben Belgacem, who was born in France to Tunisian parents, said he wanted to “die for Allah” and that others too would die after grabbing a soldier, putting a gun to her head and seizing her rifle.

Ben Belgacem’s father insisted the assailant — who had spent time in prison for drugs and armed robbery and been investigated for links to radical Islam — was “not a terrorist” and was acting under the influence of drink and drugs.

The father was released from custody late Saturday after being questioned.

Investigators were continuing to quiz Ben Belgacem’s brother and cousin for clues as to whether the gunman had planned a terror attack or whether the airport attack was the unhinged epilogue to a shooting spree.

“My son was not a terrorist. He never prayed and he drank,” his father told Europe 1 radio, blaming “drink and cannabis” for his son’s actions.

An autopsy was to to be carried out on Ben Belgacem’s body Sunday to determine if alcohol or drugs were a factor.

Had called father

His father told Europe 1 his son phoned him shortly after the confrontation “in a state of extreme agitation”.

“He said to me: ‘Daddy, please forgive me. I’ve screwed up with a police officer’.”

A small amount of cocaine and a machete were found during a search of his home on Saturday.