This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

A gunman arrested on suspicion of carrying out several shotgun attacks in Paris had previously lived in London and was already well known to the police as the accomplice of two anarchist students who were nicknamed the "French Bonnie and Clyde", it emerged on Thursday.

Abdelhakim Dekhar, 48, was found semi-conscious in a vehicle in an underground car park the previous evening after a three-day manhunt across the French capital.

He had reportedly taken an overdose of drugs in what appeared to be a suicide attempt.

Investigators say DNA traces matching Dekhar's were found on cartridges dropped at the television station BFM TV last Friday and at the Libération newspaper offices, where a gunman shot and seriously injured a young photographers' assistant on Monday. The samples also match those on the door handle of a car the suspect hijacked at La Défense business district after shooting at the offices of a bank.

There was widespread astonishment when it was revealed that the suspect was already well known to the police. Dekhar was jailed in 1998 for supplying one of the weapons used in a failed robbery, car chase and two shootouts that left four victims, including three police officers, dead.

After being freed from jail in 1999, Dekhar is said to have spent time in London. There were also reports that he may have been planning to return to London before the attacks in Paris, but changed his mind.

The suspected gunman was discovered slumped in a car in the suburb of Bois-Colombes, six miles north of Paris, after a long-time friend with whom he had been staying since July went to the police.

The friend, 32, told detectives he had met Dekhar in London in 2000 and had given him a place to stay several times since. In July, Dekhar arrived saying he wanted to stay for a month.

After recognising from photographs of the gunman taken from security videos at BFM TV and Libération, the man confronted Dekhar and asked him to leave.

According to François Molins, the Paris public prosecutor, Dekhar told his friend he planned to kill himself and that he had "done something bloody stupid".

Dekhar, who is being treated in a secure hospital ward, was briefly questioned by police on Thursday, but the interrogation was halted after concerns for his health.

Molins said Dekhar had been told he was under arrest for attempted murder and kidnapping.

In 1998, Dekhar was convicted of being the "third man" in what is known in France as the Rey-Maupin affair.

Born in 1965 in Moselle, eastern France, Dekhar, the son of an Algerian coal miner, lived in Aubervilliers, one of Paris's rundown suburbs or banlieue, and was known to frequent far-left and anarchist political groups.

Florence Rey, left, and her lover Audry Maupin in 1994. Five people died in a series of shootouts, including Maupin. Photograph: AFP/Getty

In 1994, he met two anarchist students, Florence Rey, then 19, and Audry Maupin, then 22, who, inspired by Oliver Stone's film Natural Born Killers, planned to roam the country committing bank robberies.

On 4 October 1994, the trio tried to rob a car pound on the outskirts of Paris in order to steal the guards' weapons for future robberies.

When the robbery went wrong, they fled and were separated. Rey and Maupin hijacked a taxi and headed for Place de la Nation in central Paris, where they were confronted by a police blockade. Two police officers and the taxi driver were killed in a shootout.

The couple hijacked another car, sparking a car chase. In a second shootout a third police officer was killed and Maupin was fatally shot. In a gesture worthy of Hollywood, Rey was said to have kissed her dead lover before being hauled away by police.

In 1998 Rey was jailed for 20 years and released in 2009. Dekhar flatly denied any involvement in the fatal drama, claiming he was the victim of a conspiracy and was working for Algeria's secret service n military intelligence on a mission to infiltrate far-leftwing groups.

At his trial, psychologists described his "fantasist tendencies" and spoke of his "mental fragility". He was jailed for four years for associating with criminals.

Manuel Valls, France's interior minister, told journalists that said police were trying to establish "all his motives" for the recent attacks.

In a rambling and confused letter found by investigators, Dekhar wrote of a "fascist conspiracy" and blamed the media, which he said was "force-feeding people lies with a little spoon".

Molins told a press conference in Paris that the undated missive "warranted examination by a psychiatrist".

"His confused reasoning turns around a conspiracy in which actions by the media, the banks and concerning the running of the banlieue aim to bring about a return of fascism."

The letter also attacked capitalism and mentioned the conflicts in Syria and Libya, but made no mention of the attacks in Paris.

Molins reminded journalists that Dekhar had shown "fantasist tendencies" during the Rey-Maupin trial. He admitted neither Dekhar's gun nor his clothes as seen in the security videos had been found. The 23-year-old shot at Libération and left with back, chest and abdomen injuries was reported to be making a good recovery in hospital.