Sleuths grill Paris attacker’s family

Sleuths grill Paris attacker’s family

FPJ BureauUpdated: Thursday, May 30, 2019, 08:17 AM IST
article-image

Flights at Paris’ Orly airport were  returning to normal today a day after a man triggered a major security alert and travel chaos when he attacked a soldier before being shot dead.

 Anti-terror investigators today released the father of the assailant but were continuing to hold his brother and cousin as they sought to build a profile of Ziyed Ben Belgacem, a 39-year-old French national.

 All three family members had made contact with the police themselves, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins told a press conference late on Saturday.

 Molins said Ben Belgacem grabbed a female soldier and put a gun to her head, seizing her assault rifle.

 “Put your weapons down, hands on your heads. I’m here to die for Allah. In any case, people are going to die,” the attacker told the troops in Molins’s account of the attack.

 He tried to use the soldier as a human shield but she dropped to her knees, giving her two colleagues an opportunity to shoot him.

 Ben Belgacem was carrying a petrol can in a backpack as well as a copy of the Koran, Molins said. Officials say he had a string of criminal convictions and was previously investigated for links to radical Islam.

 An autopsy is to be carried out Sunday to determine if he was under the effects of alcohol or drugs during the attack, the sources said.

 A small amount of cocaine and a machete were found during a search of his apartment in in the northern Paris suburb of Garges-les-Gonesse yesterday afternoon.

 Flights were halted at Orly for several hours following the shooting, which happened just before 8:30 am (local time).

 Around 3,000 people were evacuated from the building.

 “The air traffic is fairly normal”, a spokesman for the Paris airport authority told AFP this morning.

 “There are however still some slight delays, of on average around 20 minutes”.

 About 100 people who were unable to board flights slept at Orly in beds provided by the airport, while 100 to 200 others spent the night at hotels provided by airlines.  The incident comes as France remains on high alert following a series of jihadist attacks that have claimed more than 230 lives since January 2015.             –AFP

RECENT STORIES

H-1B Visa Fee Confusion Ends: US Govt Issues New Guidance With Key Exemptions & Carveouts On...

H-1B Visa Fee Confusion Ends: US Govt Issues New Guidance With Key Exemptions & Carveouts On...

'You Come Out Or We Come In': Intruders Wearing Halloween Masks Threatens US Family, Caught In...

'You Come Out Or We Come In': Intruders Wearing Halloween Masks Threatens US Family, Caught In...

Trump Warns Hamas & Talks Tough On China, Says 'They Have To Be Good Or Be Eradicated'; Adds Beijing...

Trump Warns Hamas & Talks Tough On China, Says 'They Have To Be Good Or Be Eradicated'; Adds Beijing...

Louvre Museum Robbery: CCTV Video Shows Thieves Cutting Glass Box To Steal French Crown Jewels...

Louvre Museum Robbery: CCTV Video Shows Thieves Cutting Glass Box To Steal French Crown Jewels...

Pakistan Anti-Terrorism Court Issues Arrest Warrant For Imran Khan’s Sister Aleema Khan In PTI...

Pakistan Anti-Terrorism Court Issues Arrest Warrant For Imran Khan’s Sister Aleema Khan In PTI...