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The police closed the area where the knife attack occurred on Friday January 3 in Villejuif. REUTERS / Charles Platiau

The National Counter-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office announced this Saturday 4 January that it will take over the investigation into the Villejuif knife attack perpetrated the previous day by a young man suffering from psychiatric disorders and converted to Islam, who left one dead and two injured .

The circumstances of the knife attack in Villejuif became clearer. The young man who attacked passers-by on Friday in this city in the southern suburbs of Paris led his attack with cries of "Allah Akbar", said this Saturday the prosecutor of Créteil Laure Beccuau.

Nathan C., 22, who killed a man and injured two women in a park, perpetrated this " extreme violence " attack with " extreme determination, " the prosecutor said at a press conference. He "has continued to act at the cries of Allah Akbar, " she said. The assailant was shot dead by police who repeatedly asked him to throw away his knife, she added.

Nathan C. had converted to Islam in " May or July 2017 " and suffered from severe psychiatric disorders since childhood. He was hospitalized on several occasions and had left his last establishment in May before stopping the treatment prescribed to him in June.

"Salafist" works

In a bag found at the scene of the attack, the police discovered works described as " Salafists " as well as a " testamentary letter with repetitions that are fairly characteristic of the Muslim who self-flags and who knows that he will be taking the plunge, "said during the press conference Philippe Bugeaud, the deputy director of the judicial police of Paris. The apartment he occupied in Paris also had " all the signs of an apartment that was no longer going to be occupied, " said the prosecutor.

According to testimonies collected by the investigators, Nathan C. had first spared a first person, who had told him of his Muslim faith and had " recited a prayer in Arabic, " said Laure Beccuau. The young man then attacked a couple, fatally injuring the man in the heart and seriously injuring his wife in the neck. He then injured a jogger in the back.

First carried out by the Créteil prosecution, the investigation was resumed by the National Antiterrorism Prosecutor's Office (Pnat) for " assassination and attempted assassinations in connection with a terrorist enterprise " and " criminal terrorist criminal association ". " If the significant psychiatric disorders of the perpetrator are proven, the investigations of the last hours have made it possible to establish a certain radicalization of the respondent as well as an organized preparation for his passage to the act ", but also " demonstrated a thoughtful and selective murderous path likely to seriously disturb public order by intimidation or terror, ”explains Pnat in a press release.

The investigations were entrusted in co-referral to the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI) and the Regional Directorate of the Judicial Police of Paris.

(With AFP)