Prosecutors say man ‘known for radicalisation’ taken to hospital and placed in custody

This article is more than 8 months old

This article is more than 8 months old

French police have shot and injured a man holding a knife in Metz, two days after a fatal stabbing in Paris.

Christian Mercuri, the public prosecutor in the city in north-east France, said the man involved in the incident on Sunday, who was known to police both “for his radicalisation and for a personality disorder”, shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest) before being shot.

A police source said the suspect, who was born in 1989, threatened officers when they arrived at the scene, and they fired shots to overpower him.

“He is injured but his life is not in danger,” the source said, adding that no one else was hurt.

Mercuri said the man was taken to hospital, where he was placed in custody and put under investigation for the attempted murder of police officers.

Witnesses said a 22-year-old man who killed a man and injured two women at a park in Villejuif, a suburb of Paris, also shouted “Allahu Akbar”.

The attacker, who had converted to Islam, was shot dead by police. He also had psychiatric problems. Police are treating the incident as a terrorist attack.

Mercuri said he was in discussions with terrorism prosecutors about whether they should take charge of the investigation in Metz.

The office of the anti-terrorism prosecutor said that “although the [Villejuif] perpetrator had a proven history of serious psychiatric problems”, the investigation had shown “a distinct radicalisation … as well as preparations for his attack.”

A bag belonging to the man, identified by police only as Nathan C, was found at the scene. It contained works by ultraconservative Salafist writers and a letter that read like a last will and testament, investigators said.

Laure Beccuau, the public prosecutor in the town of Créteil, who had been handling the investigation before it was taken over by the anti-terrorism bureau, said the assailant spared the life of the first person he met in the park after the man, a Muslim, recited a prayer in Arabic.

He then fatally stabbed a 56-year-old man in the heart and injured his wife, before stabbing a 30-year-old jogger in the back. The two women were discharged from hospital on Saturday.

On Tuesday, France will mark the fifth anniversary of the killing of 12 people at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris by two brothers pledging allegiance to Al-Qaida.

France remains on high alert after a string of terrorist attacks killed more than 250 people in the past five years.