Tre franske soldater som bevoktet et jødisk forsamlingshus i Nice ble angrepet og knivstukket av en mistenkt jihadist. To andre gjerningspersoner skal ha kommet seg unna.
Moussa Coulibaly (30), som ble arrestert umiddelbart etter angrepet, skal ha blitt pågrepet i Tyrkia senest i forrige uke da han forsøkte å komme seg til Syria for å slutte seg til terrororganisasjonen Den islamske stat (IS).
En av de andre gjerningsmennene bak angrepet skal senere ha blitt pågrepet av fransk politi.
The man who stabbed three soldiers outside a Jewish community centre in Nice today, was apprehended in Turkey last week while en-route to join ISIS, authorities believe.
Moussa Coulibaly, 30, was arrested at Istanbul airport and deported back to France after border control became suspicious, a security source has said.
His shares the last name of Amedy Coulibaly, who took hostages in a kosher supermarket in Paris and gunned down a policewoman last month.
The surname is relatively common among families of Malian descent, but anti-terrorist police have confirmed they are ‘investigating a link’ between the pair.
Coulibaly was detained after the attack, near the Galeries Lafayette department store, and a second man has since been arrested by police.
Angrepet fant sted i sentrum av Nice, etter at Coulibaly fikk en bot for å ha reist kollektivt uten gyldig billett. Han skal ha betalt boten uten å blunke og stormet deretter mot de tre soldatene.
Ifølge en anonym politikilde har Coulibaly flere dommer for tyveri og vold bak seg, men motivet for angrepet er enda ikke klarlagt.
The attack took place outside a Jewish community centre in Nice, home to an Israeli association and a Jewish radio station.
A manager at the center, who did not want to be identified because she was afraid, confirmed soldiers posted in front of the building were attacked. She said it happened around lunchtime and no one was inside the office.
France has been on high alert since the attacks in the Paris region by three Islamic extremists that left 20 people dead, including the gunmen.
More than 10,000 soldiers have been deployed around the country to protect sensitive locations, including major shopping areas, synagogues, mosques and transit hubs.
Tidligere i dag arresterte for øvrige franske myndigheter syv menn og en kvinne mistenkt for å være del av et nettverk som sender jihadister til Syria for å tilslutte seg IS.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said those arrested in the Paris and Lyon areas are not suspected of links to the attacks against a kosher grocery and newspaper Charlie Hebdo in January.
Three of those arrested Tuesday had traveled to Syria and returned in December 2014, a French official said, though it was unclear whether they joined the Islamic State group or another group.
The network began sending French fighters to Syria in May 2013, and at least one of them was killed there, the official said. Other members of the network are still in Syria.
The group did not appear to be involved in any particular plot, or linked to any other networks already broken up in France in recent months, said the official, who was not authorized to be publicly identified discussing security matters.
France has seen hundreds of homegrown radicals join extremists abroad, most linked to ISIS in Syria and Iraq.
Dersom opplysningen om at Coulibaly ble pågrepet på vei til IS i forrige uke stemmer, er han den sjette radikaliserte islamisten som i løpet av kort tid og med franske myndigheters og sikkerhetstjenesters viten har fått bevegelsesfrihet til å utgjøre en trussel mot samfunnet og dets borgere.
Franske myndigheter og sikkerhetstjenester var i forveien oppmerksomme på Mohammed Merah, fransk-algireren som myrdet syv mennesker – fire jødiske borgere (hvorav tre var barn) og tre muslimske soldater – i 2012; fransk-algireren Mehdi Nemmouche, som i 2014 skjøt og drepte fire personer på det jødiske museet i Bryssel; de fransk-algiriske brødrene Said og Cherif Kouachi som angrep redaksjonen i Charlie Hebdo og drepte 12 den 7. januar 2015 og brødrenes venn Amedy Coulibaly som 9. januar tok gisler i en jødisk kosherbutikk og drepte fire.