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Agence France-Presse

Associated Press

A knife-wielding man in France stabbed four officers at the police headquarters in central Paris on Thursday, before being shot dead.
The Paris prosecutor said one woman and three men were killed in the stabbing.
Police union official Loic Travers said the attack, which occurred around 1pm on Thursday, appeared to have begun in an office and continued elsewhere inside the large compound across the street from Notre Dame Cathedral.
Travers said the motive was unknown, but that the police employee worked in the intelligence unit for 20 years and had not posed known problems.

Paris prosecutor Remy Heitz did not address the 45-year-old attacker’s motives but said authorities have opened a murder investigation, for the moment ruling out a terrorism inquiry.
A police official and member of the collective “Police up in Anger”, which advocates for better conditions for officers, was quoted by franceinfo radio as saying the assailant had experienced issues with his supervisor.
“I know there were tensions between him and his direct supervisor,” Christophe Crepin told franceinfo.
An official at the prosecutor’s anti-terrorism office said that for now his office was not leading the investigation.
Did he snap, or was there some other reason? It’s still too early to say.
Lois Travers, police union official
The premises were cordoned off after the lunchtime attack, and dozens of police and emergency vehicles had converged at the scene.
At least one metro station in the vicinity of the building, which is close to Notre-Dame cathedral and other major tourist attractions, was closed.
Sources said the attacker was shot dead by police in the courtyard of the building, where he was employed.

Emery Siamandi, an interpreter who worked at police headquarters, said he was in the stairwell leading to the chief’s office when he heard gunshots.
“I told myself, this isn’t right,” Siamandi said. “Moments later, I saw three policewomen crying. I couldn’t help them in any way, and their colleagues were crying, too.”
He said he saw one officer on his knees in tears.

France’s prime minister, interior minister and the Paris prosecutor were at the scene, but the government had not issued a statement more than two hours after the rampage.
The interior minister said a wounded police employee was undergoing emergency surgery on Thursday afternoon.
Investigators suspect a workplace dispute sparked the deadliest attack on police in France in years, sources said, but there were no immediate further details.
“Did he snap, or was there some other reason? It’s still too early to say,” Loic Travers, head of the Alliance Police union for the Paris region, told BFM television.

“Paris weeps for its own this afternoon after the horrific attack at the Police Prefecture,” Mayor Anne Hidalgo wrote on Twitter.
“The toll is heavy: Several police officers have lost their lives. My thoughts go to the families of the victims and their relatives,” she said.
Fiery clashes as ‘yellow vests’ revive protests across France
The attack at the police headquarters came as tension grows within the ranks of the police force, who have been stretched to the limit by policing the “yellow vest” protests against President Emmanuel Macron and have themselves been accused of heavy-handed tactics.
Thousands of French police officers demonstrated in Paris on Wednesday for better working conditions in a rare protest by the force, against the backdrop of a spike in suicides within their ranks.
Organisers estimated that 27,000 officers took part, out of 150,000 police staff nationwide. No independent estimate was available.
Additional reporting by Reuters


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Crime

Man in France shot dead after stabbing four officers at Paris police headquarters

The area outside the Paris police headquarters was cordoned after the attack. Photo: Reuters

Security personnel is seen after an attack on the police headquarters in Paris, France, October 3, 2019. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann

A rescue helicopter is seen after an attack on the police headquarters in Paris, France, October 3, 2019. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann

People stand behind a police tape as they are evacuated nearby the police headquarters after an incident in Paris, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2019. A French police union official says an attacker armed with a knife has killed one officer inside Paris police headquarters before he was shot and killed. (AP Photo/Kamil Zihnioglu)

Police secure the area in front of the Paris police headquarters. Photo: Reuters

Worrying rise in police suicides leaves France confronting taboos around mental health

A French police officer stands guard outside the Notre Dame cathedral. File photo: EPA

Former French boxing champion, Christophe Dettinger (R), is seen during clashes with French Gendarmes at a demonstration by the "yellow vests" on the passerelle Leopold-Sedar-Senghor bridge in Paris, France, January 5, 2019. Picture taken January 5, 2019. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

TOPSHOT - A police officer stands in front of a car which was set on fire by students protesting against French government Education reforms on December 3, 2018 in the north of Paris' suburb of Aubervilliers. (Photo by Thomas SAMSON / AFP)

epa06658775 French police clash with protesters during the eviction of environmental protesters from the ZAD 'Zone A Defendre' (zone to defend) area in Notre-Dame-des-Landes, north of Nantes, France, 10 April 2018. Police are clearing the site from around 250 squatters that have been occupying the area for ten years to block the construction of disputed Notre-Dames-des-Landes airport. The French government on 17 January 2018 announced it would give up the airport project, but the squatters refused to leave. EPA-EFE/THIBAULT VANDERMERSCH

Two French policemen go on trial for alleged rape of Canadian tourist in Paris headquarters

The flag outside the entrance at 36 Quai des Orfevres – the headquarters of Paris police. Photo: AFP

FILE - In this Friday, Feb. 6, 2015 file picture, police officers stand guard in front of the 36 Quai des Orfevres police headquarters in Paris, France. Two anti-gang French policemen are going on trial over charges of gang-raping a Canadian tourist at Paris police headquarters. (AP Photo/Francois Mori, File)

Six Paris firefighters face charges over gang rape of Norwegian student at fire station

Firefighters at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris on April 15. Photo: AFP

A firefighter walks in front of Notre Dame cathedral Tuesday April 16, 2019 in Paris. Firefighters declared success Tuesday morning in an over 12-hour battle to extinguish an inferno engulfing Paris' iconic Notre Dame cathedral that claimed its spire and roof, but spared its bell towers. (Ludovic Marin via AP)

Firefighter douse flames billowing from the roof at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris on April 15, 2019. - A fire broke out at the landmark Notre-Dame Cathedral in central Paris, potentially involving renovation works being carried out at the site, the fire service said. (Photo by Geoffroy VAN DER HASSELT / AFP)

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The attacker worked at the intelligence unit of the Paris police headquarters in an administrative capacity
A police official told local radio that the assailant had experienced ‘tensions’ with his direct supervisor



The attacker worked at the intelligence unit of the Paris police headquarters in an administrative capacity, a police union official said.


France