{"id":4263,"date":"2018-08-23T11:45:06","date_gmt":"2018-08-23T10:45:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.cat-int.org\/?p=4263&lang=en"},"modified":"2018-10-11T12:12:12","modified_gmt":"2018-10-11T11:12:12","slug":"knifeman-kills-mother-and-sister-near-paris-is-claims-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.cat-int.org\/index.php\/2018\/08\/23\/knifeman-kills-mother-and-sister-near-paris-is-claims-attack\/","title":{"rendered":"Knifeman kills mother and sister near Paris, IS claims attack"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source : AFP\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Par\u00a0Marie GIFFARD, Katell PRIGENT<\/p>\n

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Trappes (France) (AFP) – A man stabbed his mother and sister to death and seriously injured another person in a town near Paris on Thursday before being shot dead by police.<\/p>\n

The 36-year-old had serious mental health problems and had been on a terror watch list since 2016, Interior Minister Gerard Collomb told reporters after visiting the scene in the town of Trappes.<\/p>\n

The motive for the violence remained unclear despite a claim by the Islamic State (IS) group that it was an attack by one of its fighters responding to the terror organisation’s propaganda.<\/p>\n

Collomb said the attacker was « mentally unstable, rather than someone who was committed, who would respond to orders from a terrorist organisation ».<\/p>\n

The Versailles public prosecutor, however, said in a statement late Thursday that the assailant had shouted « Allahu Akbar » (God is Greatest) and threatened police before he was shot.<\/p>\n

« Investigations are under way to determine the circumstances and the exact sequence of events as well as the motivation of the perpetrator, which is still uncertain at present, » the statement added.<\/p>\n

Experts have urged caution about some recent IS claims taking responsibility for attacks around the world, as governments and experts have thrown several such declarations into doubt.<\/p>\n

The attacker’s third victim, 66, was in a critical condition after being airlifted to hospital, officials said.<\/p>\n

– ‘A guy who had lost it’ –<\/p>\n

The attack happened around 9 am (0700 GMT) in Trappes, a poor town with a large Muslim population about 30 kilometres (20 miles) southwest of the capital.<\/p>\n

Armed police responded to reports of violence and were threatened by the man who had stabbed his 71-year-old mother to death in her home, Collomb added. The man’s sister was aged 49.<\/p>\n

« He walked towards the police with his knife, » he said. « Police then opened fire. »<\/p>\n

The neighbourhood, a leafy area of detached homes close to high-rise concrete apartment blocks, remained partially sealed off by police Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Locals said the killer, who has not yet been named, was separated from his wife and had not seen his children in a long time, adding that he had worked as a bus driver and was living with his mother.<\/p>\n

« I had coffee with him often but I hadn’t seen him for a month, » said one neighbour, a 59-year-old who gave his name as Pascal.<\/p>\n

« They’re talking about terrorism but this wasn’t a terrorist, it was a guy who had lost the plot, » he added.<\/p>\n

The knifeman had been on the terror watch list since 2016 after expressing extremist views, a security source told AFP.<\/p>\n

BFM television reported that he had serious alcohol and drug problems.<\/p>\n

– ‘People think it’s Baghdad’ –<\/p>\n

Just a short drive from the wealthy area of Versailles, home to the world-famous palace, Trappes is known for social problems linked to poverty, drugs and hardline interpretations of Islam.<\/p>\n

About 50 locals are suspected of having left France to fight for IS in Syria and Iraq.<\/p>\n

Residents expressed concern that the killings would reinforce the area’s negative image, which persists despite the success of a few home-grown stars, including actors Omar Sy and Jamel Debbouze.<\/p>\n

« People think it’s Baghdad around here — my colleagues don’t want to drop me off after work, » said Anis Fillali, a 21-year-old salesman standing at the police cordon.<\/p>\n

France remains on high alert after a string of jihadist attacks since 2015 that have claimed the lives of 246 people.<\/p>\n

On its propaganda channel Amaq, IS claimed the Trappes killer « carried out the attack in response to calls to target subjects of the countries of the coalition » fighting the jihadists.<\/p>\n

The group claimed responsibility for a massacre in Las Vegas last year that saw a wealthy accountant kill 58 concert-goers in the deadliest mass shooting in recent US history.<\/p>\n

But US investigators concluded there was « no evidence of radicalisation or ideology to support any theory that (Stephen) Paddock supported or followed any hate group or any domestic or foreign terrorist organisation ».<\/p>\n

French terror expert Jean-Charles Brisard, head of the Center for the Analysis of Terrorism (CAT), said it was « too soon to say » if IS had a hand in the violence in Trappes.<\/p>\n

« But remember that in 2017 we had three claims of responsibility that were outlandish by Islamic State… above all the massacre in Las Vegas, » he told AFP.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source : AFP\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[62,83],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.cat-int.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4263"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.cat-int.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.cat-int.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.cat-int.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.cat-int.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4263"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/staging.cat-int.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4266,"href":"https:\/\/staging.cat-int.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4263\/revisions\/4266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.cat-int.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.cat-int.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.cat-int.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}