Man Armed with Knife Shot Dead at Paris Police Station
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Police have shot dead a man who tried to enter a Paris police station brandishing a knife on the one-year anniversary of the attack on the magazine Charlie Hebdo.
The man approached the police station in the northern 18th arrondissement just before midday, one-year almost to the minute after the attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo which killed 12. He was shot dead by officers.
French police were trying to establish whether or not he was armed with an explosives belt or carrying a form of explosives. Bomb disposal teams and anti-terrorist investigators arrived on the scene to investigate.
The interior ministry said that the man had attempted to attack a police officer at the police station reception, The Guardian Reported.
Local residents said they had heard four shots fired by police, who shut down the area and told people to close windows and stay away from balconies.
Two schools, including a nursery school, on the Goutte d’Or were closed with the children inside, as a precaution. Armed police sealed off neighbouring streets.
The man was shot dead just as François Hollande was finishing a speech across Paris to police and security services about the fight against terrorism as part of the Charlie Hebdo commemorations.
“On Thursday morning, a man attempted to attack a policeman at the reception of the police station before being hit by shots from the police,” interior ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said.
“Bomb disposal experts are at the scene working to secure the site,” he said, adding that interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve had left for the scene.