A man claiming to be a member of the Islamic State and armed with a knife was shot and injured in the Moselle on Monday 3 February after attacking a gendarme whom he injured in his hand, a spokesman for the National Gendarmerie.
The National Gendarmerie confirmed that "a man in civilian clothes brandished a handgun in the Dieuze gendarmerie". The attacker "wounded a gendarme in the hand, which first fired back with his tear gas canister and then used his weapon twice," she said. The man, "injured in the abdomen", was transported to Mercy hospital, in the suburbs of Metz, his "prognosis" being "ignored".
According to the Metz prosecutor, Christian Mercuri, who spoke to the press, a man had previously called the gendarmerie. "We must relate the facts to a call received by the operational center of the gendarmerie shortly before in which an individual declared that he was a soldier, that there was going to be carnage in Dieuze and that he claimed to be Islamic State, "he said.
The events took place around 3.30 p.m. within the gendarmerie of this commune of 3,000 inhabitants located in the east of the department.
"Self-control" and "professionalism"
The first investigations must determine whether it is a case of "ordinary law or a terrorist attack", said for its part the local gendarmerie, confirming to have "been subjected to an assault attempt".
The National Counter-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office (PNAT) has not taken up the case yet, we learned from a judicial source. The individual is not known to the counter-terrorism services.
Interior Minister Christophe Castaner praised on Twitter "the composure, professionalism and responsiveness of the forces of @Gendarmerie who intervened to apprehend the perpetrator of the attack committed inside the barracks of Dieuze ".
With Reuters and AFP
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