What do we know about the stabbing attack in Paris?

Two people were seriously injured in a knife attack -

• Two people were seriously injured in a knife attack near the former premises of

  Charlie Hebdo

  .

• Two men, including the main suspect, were arrested.

  He is an 18-year-old man from Pakistan.

• The investigations were entrusted to the DGSI and to the criminal brigade.

The location of the drama as much as the legal news immediately raised fears of the worst.

This Friday, around 11:50 am, two employees of the production company Première Réseaux Télévision were very seriously wounded with knives in the 11th arrondissement of Paris, in the immediate vicinity of the former premises of

.

Their vital prognosis is not, however, committed, specifies the Paris police headquarters.

What happened ?

The scenario of the attack is still, at this stage of the investigations, imprecise.

According to the first elements, a man dressed in a black jogging and red sneakers, burst, shortly before noon, in the rue Nicolas-Appert, at the foot of the premises occupied by 

before the attack perpetrated by the Kouachi brothers. on January 7, 2015. The individual held up a large butcher's knife - found at the scene of the attack - and immediately attacked a woman and a man who were taking a cigarette break.

According to a witness, the latter, injured, was pursued by his attacker before he finally fled.

Who are the two people arrested?

The research and intervention brigade (BRI) of the Paris police headquarters was immediately mobilized.

A man, corresponding to this description and whose clothes and face bore traces of blood was arrested less than thirty minutes after the tragedy, in Bastille, about 500 meters from the site of the attack.

Described by the national counterterrorism prosecutor, Jean-François Ricard, as "the principal author", he is, according to our information, 18 years old and born in Pakistan.

He is known to the police, in particular for carrying a prohibited weapon, but would, on the other hand, be unknown to the intelligence services, specifies a source close to the investigation.

A second suspect, born in 1987, was arrested shortly after by the railway network brigade while he was in the Richard-Lenoir metro station, in the immediate vicinity of the scene of the attack.

The national counterterrorism prosecutor indicated that he had been taken into custody "for verifications concerning his relations with the principal perpetrator".

What do we know about the motivation for the attack?

An investigation was opened by the National Antiterrorist Prosecutor's Office for “attempted assassination in connection with a terrorist enterprise” and “criminal terrorist association” and entrusted to the criminal brigade and the DGSI.

If we still do not know the author's motives, the "symbolic place" of the attack, the concomitance with the trial and the "manifest desire to attack the lives of two people of whom he did not know anything and who was on hiatus. cigarette ”, according to the prosecutor Jean-François Ricard, are as many elements which make fear a terrorist motivation.

Recently, the editorial staff of

has been the target of an increase in threats, especially after the republication of the prophet's cartoons on the occasion of the opening of the January 2015 attacks. Friday, September 11, Al-Qaida reported Again threatened to attack the editorial staff, Iran denounced a provocation and large demonstrations took place in Pakistan.

Threats such as Marika Bret, the newspaper's HRD said earlier this week that she had been exfiltrated from her home.

“My security officers have received specific and detailed threats.

I had ten minutes to do my business and leave my home.

Ten minutes to give up part of your life is a bit short, and it's very violent.

I will not return home, ”she detailed in

.

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