PARIS (AFP) – A man who claimed allegiance to the Islamic State group stabbed a French policeman to death on Monday night before he was killed in a dramatic police operation, sources close to the investigation said.
French prosecutors have launched an anti-terror probe after the policeman and his partner were killed at their home in the Paris suburb of Magnanville.
A news agency linked to the Islamic State reported Monday that one of the group’s fighters carried out the attack. The SITE Intelligence Group, based just outside Washington, cited the Amaq News Agency as saying:
“Islamic State fighter kills deputy chief of the police station in the city of Les Mureaux and his wife with blade weapons near #Paris.”
Witnesses told investigators the man may have shouted “Allahu akbar” (God is greatest) as he stabbed the policeman repeatedly outside his home before holing up inside with the woman and the couple’s three-year-old son.