French citizens, imams and police pay tribute to slain police worker

Hundreds of people including Muslim imams paid tribute on Monday to a female French police official stabbed to death last week by a French resident of Tunisian origin.

The police administrative worker, a mother of two, was stabbed in the throat on Friday at the entrance of the police station where she worked in the town of Rambouillet, west of Paris. Her attacker was shot dead by police.

Police held a minute of silence at the entrance to their stations around France in honour of their colleague.

"Rambouillet has lost part of itself and the nation has lost an exceptional woman. We will not yield to this abomination," Rambouillet mayor Veronique Matillon said at a ceremony.

A delegation of French imams and members of the broader Muslim community laid white roses at the station and said the attacker did not represent them or Islam.

Several police officers have been killed by militants in recent years.

In 2019, an individual working in the Paris police headquarters killed three police officers and one civilian employee. In 2016 a Frenchman of Moroccan origin stabbed a police commander to death outside his home in a Paris suburb and killed his partner, who also worked for the police.

The day after terrorist gunmen killed 12 people at satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, another terrorist killed a policewoman.