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Asharq Al-Awsat
Asharq Al-Awsat
World
Asharq Al-Awsat

French Police Shoot and Wound 'Radicalized' Knifeman

FILE PHOTO: French police secure an area in Villejuif near Paris, France, January 3, 2020 after police shot dead a man who tried to stab several people in a public park. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo

French police on Sunday shot and wounded a man who had rushed towards a group of policemen with a knife in the northeastern city of Metz, local officials said.

Metz public prosecutor Christian Mercuri said the man was known to police both "for his radicalization and for a personality disorder."

The incident at Metz came just two days after a man went on a knife rampage in the suburb of Villejuif just outside Paris on Jan. 3, killing one person and wounding two. The Villejuif attacker was subsequently shot dead by police.

The local public prosecutor's office said it was in contact with the French anti-terrorism prosecutor's department over the incident, while French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner added he was monitoring the situation closely.

"I praise the quick thinking of the @PoliceNat57 (Moselle police force), which intervened to apprehend the individual. A probe is underway to determine the precise motivation and circumstances behind the act," Castaner wrote on Twitter.

The local prosecutor's office said the suspect suffered gunshot wounds to the thigh. He was then taken away.

Paris has suffered major attacks by extremists in recent years.

Coordinated bombings and shootings in November 2015 at the Bataclan theater and other sites around Paris killed 130 people.

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