A man has been shot dead by police in France after reportedly attacking two people with a screwdriver.
At around 7.30am local time this morning, a maintenance worker and a police officer were set upon by the tool-wielding attacker – prompting municipal police in Aubervilliers, on the outskirts of Paris to open fire, killing him.
Karine Franclet, the Mayor of Aubervilliers, said: “We strongly condemn this unacceptable act of violence which led to this dramatic attack.
“Any attack against those who take care of our city is intolerable,” she told AFP.
Armed police in Aubervilliers, on the outskirts of Paris, opened fire, killing the assailant
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A police source also told AFP: “This morning in Aubervilliers, a maintenance worker was struck several times by a screwdriver.
“A local police officer, attempting to intervene, was also injured in the arm. A local police officer on the scene drew his weapon.”
The shocking attack took place during a monthly community street-cleaning event in Aubervilliers called “The Big Wash” – where one of the victims had been working.
Neither the maintenance worker nor the police officer attacked by the man are in a critical condition, according to local reports.
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Karine Franclet “strongly condemned” the “unacceptable act of violence”
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The news of the attacks comes just over a month before the Paris Olympics kick off on July 26.
Though there is no indication this incident is terror-related, French authorities have managed to prevent a litany of plots and uncovered several threats this year already.
A mere three weeks ago, police swooped on another Paris outskirt – Roissy-en-France – to discover a man who had used Isis-linked chemicals to blow himself up in his hotel room outside the city’s Charles de Gaulle airport.
The PNAT anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office, working with France’s domestic spy agency, has opened an investigation into the man, who is suspected of participation in a terrorist conspiracy and bomb plot.
The incident at the airport hotel was the “first foiled attack against the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games”, according to French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin – but security threats have sparked concerns across the capital already.
The Olympics’ opening ceremony, slated to take place on the city’s River Seine, was announced to have been drastically scaled back from ambitious initial plans earlier this year.
A senior French interior ministry official said French President Emmanuel Macron – who now faces an election ahead of the Games – had demanded halving the number of spectators from 600,000 following crowd control and security concerns, according to Politico.
The official said the “main threat” to the Games was “Islamist terrorism” – but conceded French intelligence had not yet identified specific plots, and groups like Isis and Al-Qaeda did not have the financial capacity to carry out attacks in France.