Knifeman kills mother, sister in Paris suburb attack

Islamic State claims responsibility

PARIS: A man with psychiatric problems fatally stabbed his mother and sister in the Paris suburb of Trappes on Thursday and seriously wounded a third person, French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said.

#Trappes : le profil de l'assaillant est plus celui d'un déséquilibré aux antécédents psychiatriques que celui d'un engagé répondant aux ordres d'une organisation terroriste.
Je veux redire ma gratitude et ma confiance aux forces de sécurité et secours mobilisées. pic.twitter.com/oW8HJDU5Pz

— Gérard Collomb (@gerardcollomb) August 23, 2018

The 36-year-old launched his attack in a street in broad daylight before taking refuge in a house. He was shot dead by police when he ran towards them in a threatening way, the minister said.

"The police operation is over...the person was neutralised and is dead," the local prefecture said on Twitter.

"It appears the criminal had serious psychiatric problems,"
Collomb told reporters in Trappes. "He was known [to police] for advocating terrorism but it seems he was a disturbed person rather than someone who could respond to calls for action from terrorist organisations like Daesh," he said, using the Arabic acronym for Islamic State.



Collomb said counter-terrorism prosecutors were not at this stage in charge of the investigation but were following it closely.

Islamic State issued a statement claiming responsibility for the attack but provided no evidence. The statement came before it was confirmed that the victims were relatives of the attacker.

BFM TV said the attacker shouted "Allahu Akbar", but police could not immediately confirm it and they said investigators were looking
into whether this was a family quarrel.

"The reason behind the attack and his profile are not known yet and are being looked into," a police source said. Counter-terrorism officials have yet to be asked to join the investigation, a judicial source said.

Trappes is an underprivileged town situated in an overall wealthy area west of Paris. Dozens of youths from the town of about 30,000 habitants have left for Syria.

Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, in his first purported speech in nearly a year, has called on followers to fight on despite recent defeats, according to an audio recording posted on the group's media outlet on Wednesday.