Seven wounded in attack; terror ruled out

PARIS - Seven people including two British tourists were wounded in Paris late on Sunday by a knife-wielding man, a terrifying attack that bystanders tried to stop by throwing petanque balls at the assailant.

Four of the victims were in a critical condition, police said, after the man brandishing a large blade and iron bar went on the rampage next to a canal in the northeast of the capital.

The suspect is believed to be an Afghan national and has been arrested, said a source close to the enquiry, adding he had targeted "strangers" but that "nothing at this stage shows signs of a terrorist nature".

Chaos erupted on the banks of the Bassin de la Villette, an area popular with locals and visitors who frequent the cafes, cinemas and other cultural venues along its banks, just after 11 pm.

Eyewitness Youssef Najah, 28, said he was walking beside the canal when he saw a man running and holding a knife about 25-30 centimeters long.

"There were around 20 people chasing him. They started throwing petanque balls at him," Najah said, referring to the sport popular in France also known as boules.

"Around four or five balls hit him in the head, but they weren't able to stop him."

According to the same witness, the attacker then dived into an alleyway, where the man "tried to hide behind two British tourists. We said to them: 'Watch out, he has a knife.' But they didn't react".

The pair were then attacked, he said.

High alert

The British foreign office said it was "urgently investigating this incident" in cooperation with French authorities, British media reported.

A police investigation has been launched for attempted murder, according to a judicial source.

It is the latest of several knife attacks France has seen in recent months, with terrorism being ruled out in most cases.

In Sunday's incident, the motive for the violence remained unclear despite a claim by the Islamic State group that it was an attack by one of its fighters responding to the terror group's propaganda.

Authorities said the 36-year-old had serious mental health problems and had been on a terror watch list since 2016.

France has been on high alert following a string of terrorist attacks in recent years, often by people who have become radicalized or claim to have acted in the name of the IS group.

More than 240 people have been killed by Islamist extremists since a massacre at the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine in Paris in January 2015.

AFP - AP

(China Daily 09/11/2018 page11)