A counter-terrorism investigation has been launched in France after two people were seriously injured in a knife attack in front of the former offices of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris. reports The Guardian.
A man wearing bloodstained clothing and carrying a large knife or machete was detained near the Place de la Bastille in eastern Paris shortly after the attack, police said.
The victims were a man and a woman employed by a TV production company called Premières Lignes based in the same building as the newspaper’s former offices.
A member of staff at Premières Ligne said the pair were having a cigarette outside the building when they were attacked. “There was one assailant who had a very big knife. The attack was very violent. I could hear the screams from the second floor,” the unnamed man said.
All schools in the area were placed in lockdown as a security measure. A large meat cleaver found near the scene is believed to have been used by the attacker.
France’s counter-terrorism prosecutors’ office said it had opened an investigation into attempted murder in relation to a terrorist enterprise.
Jean-François Ricard, the head of the anti-terrorism unit, said the principal suspect, aged 18, was arrested at 1.26pm local time. Analysis of blood on his clothing and CCTV cameras suggested he had carried out the knife attack. A second person, aged 33, was arrested at 1.37pm. “We are currently trying to establish his link to the principal subject,” Ricard said.
A crisis control centre was opened at the interior ministry.
Charlie Hebdo has moved from its previous address on the Rue Nicolas-Appert since an attack by Islamist extremists in 2015 in which several of its editorial staff, including some of France’s best-known cartoonists, were among 12 people killed. The new address is kept secret for security reasons.