The man who stabbed a French police chief outside his
home reportedly broadcast the attack live on Facebook.
The attacker, who has been named in unconfirmed
reports as Larossi Abballa, was given a prison sentence in 2013
for jihadi activities.
He reportedly shouted "Allahu Akbar" as he
stabbed a policeman nine times in the stomach before holding the officer's wife
and three-year-old son hostage in their home in the Paris suburb
of Magnanville.
When negotiations failed, an armed police unit stormed
the house and shot him dead. The chief's wife was found dead but
their child was rescued unharmed.
It has also emerged the killer broadcast the
attack live on Facebook, a source close to the investigation told CNN.
During the live broadcast, Abballa was allegedly
shown to consider what to do about the couple's son, according to French jihad
expert David Thomson.
The attack has been claimed by Isis, according to the
website of the Amaq agency.
If that link is confirmed, it would be the first
militant strike on French soil since the government imposed a state of
emergency after the Paris attacks in November that killed 130 people.
The 25-year-old attacker was being monitored by
security and anti-terrorist services after he received a three-year prison
sentence for helping Islamist militants go to Pakistan, police and government
sources said.
After an emergency cabinet meeting chaired by
President Francois Hollande, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve told
reporters: "An appalling terrorist act was committed yesterday in
Magnanville by an individual who attacked a police officer and his wife, who
was herself an official in a police station."
The attacker struck in the Paris suburb of
Magnanville, about 50 km (30 miles) northwest of the French capital and about
20 km from Les Mureaux, where the police commander was stationed.
On a Facebook account said to belong to the attacker,
a post announces his "success" in killing a police officer and his
wife at their home, claiming that "the brothers in Sham [Isis
territories]" are in contact with him.
The post continues: "I declare loudly and
strongly my allegiance to the Emir Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
"I have responded to the call of Sheikh Abu
Muhammad al-Adnani."
Isis spokesperson Abu Muhammad al-Adani has called for
a series of lone wolf attacks during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
Acknowledging possible defeat in the group’s
strongholds of Mosul, in Iraq, Sirte, in Libya and Raqqa, in Syria, he urged
followers to create a “month of calamity for infidels”.
French prosecutors have launched an anti-terrorism
investigation into the double murder.
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