Two people were in a critical condition yesterday after being attacked by a man wielding a machete near the former offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris.
Two suspects were arrested, one seized in the nearby Bastille area with blood on his clothing. Reports said a blade found at the scene was described by police sources as a machete or a meat cleaver.
The two wounded people were staff members at a TV production company, a colleague told AFP.
Another staff member said: ‘Two colleagues were smoking a cigarette outside the building, in the street. I heard shouting. I went to the window and saw one of my colleagues, covered in blood, being chased by a man with a machete ….’
The attack coincides with the trial of 14 suspected accomplices of the perpetrators of the 2015 massacres at Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket that left a total of 17 dead over a period of three days. All three attackers were killed by police. The killings marked the beginning of a wave of jihadist attacks across France that left more than 250 people dead.
The motive for yesterday’s attack in the 11th arrondissement in eastern Paris is unclear, according to reports, and it is not known whether it is linked to Charlie Hebdo, which has moved its office to a secret location in another area.
One report said that on the opening day of the trial relating to the 2015 attacks, the magazine re-ran a series of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed, held by Muslims to be blasphemous.
[Picture: Free-Photos from Pixabay]