Attack on two police officers in Cannes: three arrests in the entourage of the aggressor – archyde

Three people from the entourage of the perpetrator of the knife attack on a police crew in front of the Cannes (Alpes-Maritimes) police station were arrested, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday (November 9th). “These are relatives, one of the people worked for him and another housed him”, explained a police source, specifying that the attacker had “A small masonry company”. “We are trying to understand the motivations of the perpetrator”, said this police source, confirming an information from France Bleu Azur.

At 6.30 a.m. on Monday, a 37-year-old Algerian national stabbed two of the four officers in a police vehicle. They were not injured, protected by their bulletproof vests. The attack took place in the parking lot of the Cannes police station. The crew was preparing to go on patrol when it was attacked by the man, according to the first elements of the investigation.

A policeman was repeatedly hit with the weapon. Going around the vehicle, the assailant then attacked a policewoman, also stabbing her several times. According to the Grasse public prosecutor’s office, the attacker was finally “Neutralized” by a third policeman who fired. A fourth officer in the cockpit fired through the vehicle window.

The perpetrator would have mentioned ” the Prophet “, but the terrorist track is for the moment ruled out: the investigation was opened for “attempted assassination on officials of the national police”, specified the public prosecutor of Grasse in a press release on Monday evening.

“No element of radicalization” found at his home

Hit twice by fire from one of the police officers in the vehicle, the attacker was transferred to the Nice hospital, where he was still being taken care of by a surgical team on Monday evening, but “His prognosis is vital[était] not engaged “, also specified this press release.

Still according to the Grasse prosecutor’s office, the search carried out at the Cannes home of the aggressor “Did not highlight any element of radicalization or membership of a jihadist organization” ; the man was “Totally unknown to the intelligence services”, as announced in the morning of Monday the Minister of the Interior, Gerald Darmanin, came on the spot.

The perpetrator was not “Registered in no radicalization file”, he insisted, speaking of“A man who worked, (…) in order on the national territory “. That man, “Who has an Algerian passport” and “An Italian residence permit”, had “Requested a resident card in France”, had specified Mr. Darmanin. He would have arrived in Europe in 2009 or 2010, then in France around 2016, from Italy, where he still stayed regularly. The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office did not seize it but has, at this stage, an observer role.