Two Injured, Several Arrested in Paris Terrorist Attack
By Stefan J. Bos, Special Correspondent Worthy News
(Worthy News) – Two people were stabbed and seriously injured in a suspected terrorist attack in Paris outside the former offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, French authorities said Friday.
Soon after the stabbing in the French capital, police announced they had detained the “main suspect,” who is an 18-year old man from Pakistan. Up to six others were later arrested, French media reported. Police said they included a person from Algeria, while not immediately releasing all names.
One of the suspects was reportedly seized in the nearby Bastille area with blood on his clothing. A blade – described as a machete or a meat cleaver – was recovered at the scene of the attack near the Boulevard Richard-Lenoir.
Prosecutor Jean-Francois Ricard said the assailants did not know the woman and a man who was stabbed.
The two people confirmed injured worked for documentary film company Premieres Lignes, according to founder Paul Moreira. They were reportedly attacked during a smoke break outside.
STAFF EVACUATED
Moreira told France’s BFM television that an attacker fled into the subway, and the company’s staff members were evacuated.
Friday’s attack came as a high-profile trial was underway in Paris of 14 people accused of helping two Islamic military’s carry out the 2015 attack on Charlie Hebdo, in which 12 people were killed.
In recent days Charlie Hebdo, which lost many staff members, republished Prophet Mohammad cartoons in remembrance of the attack.
French Prime Minister Jean Castex said the lives of the two wounded workers in Friday’s violence were not in danger. He offered the government’s solidarity with their families and colleagues.
The prime minister noted the “symbolic site” of the attack, “at the very moment where the trial into the atrocious acts against Charlie Hebdo is underway.” Castex pledged the government’s “unfailing attachment to freedom of the press, and its determination to fight terrorism.”
Charlie Hebdo also strongly condemned the stabbings on social media. “This tragic episode shows us once again that fanaticism, intolerance, the origins of which will be revealed by the investigation, are still present in French society…There is no question of ceding anything,” the newspaper added.
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