Cannes: what we know about the knife attack on police – The HuffPost

POLICE – The facts took place around 6:30 am on Monday, November 8 in the morning in front of the Cannes police station about 500 meters from the Palais des Festivals and the Croisette. A man hastily opened the door of a parked police vehicle and stabbed a first officer “in the chest”, before circling the vehicle to attack “the captain”, said police sources at AFP.

Another police officer then seriously injured the attacker with two retaliatory rounds. Its vital prognosis is engaged, it was specified, always from the same sources. Two other police officers were lightly hit by shrapnel from their colleague. This crew was made up of four police officers including a woman, the skipper, we learned from a source close to the investigation.

The LR mayor of the city, David Lisnard confirmed on the spot that the national police patrol had been assaulted while “on duty”. The minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin went there.

He was pleased to be able to push “a ‘phew’ of relief when we see that these police officers, certainly very affected psychologically, are not physically injured in particular thanks to their equipment and their bulletproof vests”.

What we know about the attacker

The investigation will attempt to provide details on the aggressor and his motivations, some details of which were confirmed in the morning by Gérald Darmanin. “What I can tell you is that he is a national who has an Algerian passport who is regularly on the national territory, who arrived in Europe at the end of the years 2009-2010, then in France in the years 2016 , coming from Italy. He obviously has an Italian residence permit ”, detailed Gérald Darmanin.

According to the minister, the assailant had requested for several weeks a resident card in France without the prefecture taking action.

“To my knowledge, he does not have any criminal record in France” added the minister, specifying that he was “not registered in any radicalization file”. Seriously hit by retaliatory fire from colleagues of the targeted police officer, the alleged aggressor is “between life and death in Cannes hospital”, the minister informed.

The terrorist trail under study

The national anti-terrorism prosecution has not yet been seized, even if “the terrorist trail is envisaged”, a police source told AFP. Present on site, Gérald Darmanin said in the morning that the anti-terrorism prosecution had not yet opened an investigation and was present as an observer.

The investigation is currently in the hands of the Nice judicial police.

The last police officer killed in service in France is Brigadier Eric Masson, shot dead at a narcotics point of sale in Avignon on May 5. A little later in May, a policeman on duty was seriously injured in the head in the Loire by young people who threw a bottle at him.

The last fatal attack with a jihadist dimension targeting the police is that of a police officer stabbed on April 23, 2021 at the Rambouillet police station (Yvelines), by a 36-year-old Tunisian national.

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