A man recently freed from prison on terrorism charges was fatally shot by police after he reportedly attempted to assault another officer with a knife and scissors near the Arc de Triomphe in Paris on Friday.
The confrontation occurred close to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier during the nightly ceremony of rekindling the eternal flame.
The man, identified as a French citizen born in 1978, allegedly targeted an officer protecting the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and was subsequently shot by a different officer.
He succumbed to his injuries at a hospital, according to the French counterterrorism prosecutor’s office.
French police were stationed in front of the Arc de Triomphe on Friday night after the man reportedly tried to attack an officer with a knife. (Guillaume Baptiste/AFP via Getty Images)
In 2013, he was sentenced to 17 years in prison in Brussels for a terrorist-related crime involving the attempted murder of three police officers in Belgium and had only been released from prison last 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.
