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A French soldier shot and wounded a man armed with machetes and carrying two bags on his back on Friday as he tried to enter the Paris Louvre museum in what the government said appeared to have been a terrorist attack.
Initial indications were that the man, who was hovering between life and death after being shot, was an Egyptian who arrived in France at the end of January, a source close to the investigation said.
The man shouted Allahu Akbar (God is greatest) and rushed at police and soldiers before being shot and seriously wounded near the museum's shopping mall, police said. A second person was also detained after acting suspiciously.
"The soldier fired five bullets," Michel Cadot, head of Paris police, said, describing how the man hurried threateningly towards the soldiers at around 10 a.m. (0900 GMT).
"It was an attack by a person ... who represented a direct threat and whose actions suggested a terrorist context."
At a meeting of EU leaders in Malta, French President Francois Hollande praised the courage and determination of the soldiers. "This operation undoubtedly prevented an attack whose terrorist nature leaves little doubt," he said.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-france-shooting-idUKKBN15I10T
Initial indications were that the man, who was hovering between life and death after being shot, was an Egyptian who arrived in France at the end of January, a source close to the investigation said.
The man shouted Allahu Akbar (God is greatest) and rushed at police and soldiers before being shot and seriously wounded near the museum's shopping mall, police said. A second person was also detained after acting suspiciously.
"The soldier fired five bullets," Michel Cadot, head of Paris police, said, describing how the man hurried threateningly towards the soldiers at around 10 a.m. (0900 GMT).
"It was an attack by a person ... who represented a direct threat and whose actions suggested a terrorist context."
At a meeting of EU leaders in Malta, French President Francois Hollande praised the courage and determination of the soldiers. "This operation undoubtedly prevented an attack whose terrorist nature leaves little doubt," he said.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-france-shooting-idUKKBN15I10T
