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A man recently released from prison on a terrorism-related conviction was fatally shot by a police officer after allegedly attempting to assault another officer with a knife and scissors in the vicinity of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris on Friday.
The incident unfolded close to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier during a ceremony for the nightly relighting of the eternal flame.
The suspect, identified only as a French national born in 1978, reportedly targeted an officer stationed at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. In response, another officer opened fire.
According to the French counterterrorism prosecutor’s office, the man succumbed to his injuries at a hospital.
French police were seen securing the area in front of the Arc de Triomphe on Friday night following the attempted attack. (Photo credit: Guillaume Baptiste/AFP via Getty Images)
He was sentenced to 17 years in prison in Brussels in 2013 on a terrorist-related offense of attempted murder of three police officers in Belgium and had just been released in December.
The man served 12 years in prison and was placed under police supervision with routine checks, the French prosecution office said.
The French counterterrorism prosecutor’s office said it had opened an investigation into the man related to his ties to a “terrorist enterprise” before his death.
French President Emmanuel Macron visiting the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arc de Triomphe in 2021. ( Ludovic Marin/Pool via Reuters)
The man was held in a Belgian prison until 2015, when he was transferred to France and released on Christmas Eve.
The Arc de Triomphe was closed to guests after the incident, which had no other reported injuries.
The man was killed in the incident. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva, File)
The Arc de Triomphe, at the end of the Champs-Élysées, is one of Paris and Europe’s most popular sights, and millions of tourists visit the monument in the heart of the French capital each year.