French policewoman badly wounded in knife attack

PARIS

A perpetrator was killed in a shootout on Friday after he attacked and severely injured a policewoman in western France, according to gendarmerie forces.

Even though the attack bears striking similarity with the April 23 stabbing of a policewoman at the Rambouillet police station, National Anti-Terrorism authorities have, for now, refrained from opening a terror investigation.

Nantes prosecutor Pierre Sennes said at a news conference lthat the case is being investigated for attempted murder and kidnapping.

The suspect reportedly stole the victim’s weapon and fled.

He was cornered after a manhunt and an exchange of fire as gendarmerie forces moved in to make an arrest.

The suspect was killed and three gendarmes were injured.

The motive for the attack is not yet known.

The attacker, who was a French national, had a known criminal history and is part of the administration’s database, FSPRT, or the file of alerts for the prevention of terrorist radicalization, that identifies suspected radical Islamists.

He spent time in prison on several occasions and was most recently released March 22 following an eight-year stay. His case is complicated further as he was placed under socio-judicial follow-up in 2015 requiring support and care due to psychiatric disorders and a year later was diagnosed with "severe schizophrenia."

Sennes said the suspect walked in around 10 a.m. local time at the municipal police office arguing about a problem with a vehicle and stabbed the policewoman multiple times in the limbs.

He then grabbed the service weapon of the grievously wounded woman and on the way out attempted to stab another policeman who was saved from injury because of his bulletproof vest.

Police failed to apprehend him as he climbed into his car and was found in an accident near police premises.

The prosecutor said, after the accident, the suspect abandoned his car and entered a residential area, roughly 30 meters (100 feet) behind police premises and kidnapped a woman inside her apartment for almost 2.5 hours. After a search spanning three hours and involving 240 gendarmes, three dog teams and two helicopters, the suspect was zeroed in after 1 p.m.

He was shot dead after he came out on the balcony and tried to shoot at the gendarmes, said Sennes,

Prime Minister Jean Castex said the wounded officer, who is recovering in the hospital, has the full support and solidarity of the government.

Only, two weeks ago, Castex announced a €10 million ($12 million) fund to strengthen security at police stations, to avert attacks on police and gendarmes.

Police unions and forces angered by repeated attacks and on security personnel, staged a protest outside parliament demanding tougher laws and harsher punishments against attackers.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin announced on Twitter that he visited the western town of La Chapelle-sur-Erdre, where the knife attack took place, in support of police officers.