LOIC VENANCE
It was not ruled out that the act could have a terrorist background. The public prosecutor’s office in Nantes has been investigating in all directions since Friday, it said on Saturday.
The policewoman was seriously injured in the leg in the attack. The alleged perpetrator, who was shot dead after the attack, was considered mentally ill and radicalized.
The 39-year-old Frenchman attacked and injured a police officer in the police station in La Chapelle-sur-Erdre, a town of around 20,000 people near Nantes, on Friday morning. He then fled where he held a young woman hostage for over two hours. In the afternoon there was an arrest in which two emergency services were injured – as was the 39-year-old, who died of gunshot wounds.
As France’s Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said, the man suffered from severe schizophrenia and was therefore receiving medical treatment. It was also recorded in an anti-terror database. He was only released in March after serving several years in prison for armed robbery. He is said to have radicalized during his detention.
In the past few weeks there had been repeated attacks on the police in France. In April, for example, an attacker allegedly motivated by Islamism had killed a police officer in Rambouillet near Paris with a knife. The acts sparked a major debate about the safety of the emergency services. Last week, thousands of police officers demonstrated in front of the Paris National Assembly for more support.