Paris: Troops at Paris’ Orly airport yesterday shot dead a man who tried to grab a female soldier’s weapon, triggering a major security alert that caused travel chaos.
The incident comes as France remains on high alert following a series of jihadist attacks that have claimed more than 230 lives since January 2015.
Prosecutors said they had opened an anti-terror investigation.
“Put your weapons down. I’m here to die for Allah. In any case people are going to die,” the man told three patrolling soldiers, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said.
A cousin of the attacker was also detained, as well as his father and brother, he added.
Stranded
Flights were halted at Orly for several hours, with incoming flights diverted and thousands of passengers stranded at Paris’ second-largest airport, but normal service resumed mid-afternoon.
France goes to the polls on April 23 in the first round of a two-stage presidential election in which security is one of the main issues on voters’ minds. Interior Minister Bruno Le Roux said the attacker, who he named as Ziyed Ben Belgacem, was “known to the police and intelligence services”.
He said the suspect was also linked to an attack on police just north of Paris earlier yesterday in which an officer was slightly wounded.
At the airport, the 39-year-old man knocked the soldier to the ground and grabbed at her rifle, a senior military source said.
At the airport, the 39-year-old man knocked the soldier to the ground and grabbed at her rifle, a senior military source said.