LOUVRE SHUTS DOWN DUE TO TERROR ALERT AFTER SOLDIER SHOOTS MAN WITH MACHETE
A man wielding a machete and shouting “Allahu akhbar” (“God is great”) was shot five times after he assaulted a soldier outside the Louvre in an attack that Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve is calling “terrorist in nature,” Rory Mulholland and Louise Burke of The Telegraph report.
French patrolmen stopped the man who was carrying two bags as he tried to enter the Carrousel du Louvre, an underground shopping mall connected to the museum. “That’s when he got the knife out and that’s when he tried to stab the soldier,” police union official Yves Lefebvre said. The soldier was “slightly wounded” during the attack. According to the Evening Standard, the suspected terrorist was rushed to Georges-Pompidou hospital and is currently in “serious condition.”
Paris prefect Michel Cadot said the suspect “appeared to be acting alone.” Anne Hidalgo, the Socialist mayor of Paris who arrived at the scene shortly after the attack, praised the “extreme efficiency” of the soldiers whose actions could have prevented a much larger attack.
Paris’s prosecution office has launched an investigation into the “attempted murder . . . related to a terrorist enterprise.” Pierre-Henry Brandet, a spokesman for the interior ministry said, “This event reminds us that the threat is present and that security is the business of all.”
The area surrounding the museum in central Paris was evacuated after the soldier opened fire. Visitors at the Louvre were apparently led from the main galleries to halls that were locked down. Security forces then proceeded to search for any explosives that may have been planted in the area.
France has been under a state of emergency since November 2015. Terrorism and security are among the major issues that will be addressed in the months leading up to France’s presidential election.
