The man who stabbed one person to death and injured several others at the Place de lOpera in central Paris was born in Chechen Republic and was aged around 20, French media report. The assailant was neutralized by police.
Police found no documentation on the attacker, but investigators identified him by his fingerprints, Europe1 radio station reported on Sunday.
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READ MORE: French authorities investigating Paris stabbing as terrorism
The assailant was a Russian born in Chechnya in 1997, RTL radio network said, adding that his mother and father had been taken into custody for questioning.
There have been conflicting reports about the nationality of the Paris attacker. AP cited an official, who wasn't authorized to be publicly named, that the assailant had French nationality but was born in Chechnya.Later, a judicial source confirmed to AFP that the man was “French, born in Chechnya in 1997.”
Reports in BFMTV and Le Parisien suggest that he was Russian.
The knife attacker wasnt listed on Fiche S, an indicator used in France to flag individuals considered a threat to national security who should be kept under constant watch, RTL said.
Shouting “Allahu akbar,” the attacker injured five people, two of them critically, on Saturday evening. One of the victims, a 29-year-old man, later succumbed to his injuries.
“At this stage, on the basis of testimonies mentioning the fact that the aggressor shouted 'Allahu akbar' when attacking passersby with a knife, given the modus operandi, we dispatched the anti-terrorist section of the prosecutor's office,” Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said.
Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attack, the groups affiliated website Amaq said. However, investigators have not verified the organizations claim.
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