The French police are repeatedly the focus of attackers. Now a man has attacked a policewoman with a knife and is then on the run for hours. What’s the motive?
Paris (AP) – fear and horror in a small French town: another knife attack on a policewoman shakes our western neighbor.
On Friday afternoon, a man attacked and injured a police officer in the police station near the city of Nantes. The man then fled, hundreds of emergency services looked for the man with dogs and helicopters.
The town of La Chapelle-sur-Erdre has been cordoned off by the security forces. Hours later there was an exchange of fire with the police – the alleged perpetrator ultimately died. The background to the incident was initially unclear – but French media reported that the man had been radicalized.
There had been repeated attacks on the police in the past few weeks. It was only in April that an attacker allegedly motivated by Islamism had killed a policewoman in Rambouillet near Paris with a knife. Further attacks on the police had recently sparked a major debate in France about the safety of the emergency services. Just last week, thousands of police officers demonstrated in front of the Paris National Assembly and called for more support.
The current incident occurred on Friday morning around 10:20 am in the police station of the gendarmerie of La Chapelle-sur-Erdre, a town with around 20,000 inhabitants. According to the gendarmerie, the man then fled on foot. According to the media, he should also have taken the police officer’s weapon with him. At first, children and young people were not allowed to leave the schools there, and shops had to close as a precaution. People should stay at home.
A few hours after the crime, the arrest took place, injuring two emergency services and the alleged attacker. A short time later, the suspect died – according to the media as a result of gunshot wounds. There was initially no official information about the perpetrator’s motive. The media reported that the man was known to have acted against security forces and was registered in an anti-terror database. He is also said to have had psychological problems. The policewoman was seriously injured in the leg in the attack and was taken to a hospital.
“I refuse to let the attacks on our police become part of our everyday life,” right-wing populist Marine Le Pen responded on Twitter. “How could a person known for their radicalization, known for wanting to attack police officers, be out there, free to cause damage?” The mayor of Nantes, Johanna Rolland, denounced a “despicable, unspeakable act” at. What could be more despicable than attacking those who protect us daily, she wrote in a message. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin had made his way to La Chapelle-sur-Erdre.
There are repeated attacks on the police in France. In autumn 2019, an employee at police headquarters in Paris killed four of his colleagues with a knife. The investigators assume a terrorist background. In 2017, a man killed an officer and injured two others on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. The terrorist organization Islamic State (IS) claimed the act for itself. France’s central government wants to offer more protection for law enforcement officers in the country with a new security law.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210528-99-778829 / 5
