Police Shoot Attacker Outside Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris
By AURELIEN BREEDEN and BENOÎT MORENNEJUNE 6, 2017
PARIS — A police officer shot and wounded an assailant armed with a hammer
and kitchen knives on the square outside Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris on Tuesday afternoon, according to the authorities.
In April, days before the first round of France’s presidential elections, an attacker opened
fire on a police van on the Champs-Élysées, killing one officer and wounding two others.
Gérard Collomb, the French interior minister, told reporters
that the attack occurred around 4:20 p.m. when the man approached three police officers from behind and started hitting one of them with a hammer.
Speaking to the newspaper Le Parisien this week, Mr. Collomb, the interior minister, said
that terrorist threats were "extremely high" in Europe and that security forces in France were more vigilant than ever.
The cathedral, a Gothic landmark on the Île de la Cité in the Seine, across from the headquarters of the Paris police prefecture, was sealed off,
and about 900 visitors and worshipers were told not to leave until the situation was declared safe.
The attacker was carrying an identity card describing him as an Algerian student, Mr. Collomb said, adding
that investigators still needed to verify his identity, as well as his motivations.