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French Cops Shoot Dead Knife-Wielding Man in Police Station

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve confirmed the attacker had shouted "Allahu Akbar" during the attack, which he said was "extremely violent."
Image: FRANCE-ATTACK-INQUIRY
Forensic police collect evidence outside the police station of Joue les-Tours on Dec. 20, where French police shot dead a man who attacked them with a knife in a police station while shouting "Allahu Akbar" ("God is great" in Arabic). The man injured the face of an officer at the entrance to the police station in Joue-les-Tours near the city of Tours in central France and injured two other before he was shot, the interior ministry said.GUILLAUME SOUVANT / AFP - Getty Images
/ Source: Reuters

PARIS — French police on Saturday shot dead a man shouting "Allahu Akbar" ("God is the greatest") who stabbed and wounded three officers in a police station, authorities said. Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, who rushed to the scene, said the man was killed after he attacked the policemen with a knife in a station in Joue-les-Tours, a suburb of the city of Tours in central France. Cazeneuve confirmed the attacker had shouted "Allahu Akbar" during the attack, which he said was "extremely violent."

The counter-terrorism section of the Public Prosecutor's office has opened a probe for "attempted murder and criminal conspiracy in connection with a terrorist organization", the Paris Prosecutor's office said. "There are grounds to probe whether he acted alone, whether he followed orders, or whether it was a mindless action," Public Prosecutor Jean-Luc Beck told BFM-TV. The man was known to police for common crimes but was not on any watch list of the French intelligence services, Cazeneuve said, adding: "The probe is only starting." The three wounded officers were hospitalized but were out of danger, he added.

Image: FRANCE-ATTACK-INQUIRY
Forensic police collect evidence outside the police station of Joue les-Tours on Dec. 20, where French police shot dead a man who attacked them with a knife in a police station while shouting "Allahu Akbar" ("God is great" in Arabic). The man injured the face of an officer at the entrance to the police station in Joue-les-Tours near the city of Tours in central France and injured two other before he was shot, the interior ministry said.GUILLAUME SOUVANT / AFP - Getty Images

— Reuters