French authorities detain three people after police officer fatally stabbed at station

Anti-terrorism investigators questioned three people who were detained after a police official was fatally stabbed on Friday at a police station outside Paris, seeking on Saturday to establish a motive, if the the attacker had ties to an extremist group and whether he acted alone.

A steady stream of people bearing flowers handed the bouquets to police officers in the quiet town of Rambouillet. The police station where the 49-year-old National Police administrative employee publicly identified only as Stephanie was killed remained blocked off to the public.

“Once again, the Republic has been attacked. Once again, the French state has been threatened. We will not let this go by,” Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Saturday.

Officers killed the Tunisia-born stabbing suspect after Friday’s attack. He entered France illegally in 2009 and was given residency papers last year, a judicial official said on Saturday, confirming French press reports. He lived in Rambouillet, best known as the site of a historic royal chateau, before the attack..

Valerie Pecresse, president of the Île-de-France regional council, said the official who died had briefly left the station where she worked to extend the time on a parking meter. She was attacked in the entry passage of the police station as she returned, according to Pecresse.

The attacker had staked out the police station ahead of time, anti-terrorism prosecutor Jean-France Ricard said on Friday. The preparation, along with statements he said during the attack and the targeting of a police official, prompted the national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office to take over the investigation into the murder of a person of public authority in relation with a terrorist group, Ricard said.