A knife attack by a police employee took place at the Paris police headquarters on Thursday, killing four police officers and resulting in the the attacker being shot dead.
The attack took place around 1 pm inside the Paris city police headquarters on Île de la Cité, in the centre of the city. The isle, which contains the Notre Dame cathedral, has since been on lockdown, with the Cité metro station nearby also temporarily shut.
The attacker was a police administrative worker with no motive for the attack yet disclosed by officials. Reuters quoted a police union group member as saying that the assailant had “tensions between him and his direct supervisor” and that he did not think this was a terrorist attack.
France’s anti-terror investigative agencies have not yet been brought in to investigate, suggesting that the terrorist angle was not being looked into and that this was a more personally-motivated attack.
Just a day before the attack, on October 2, French police had gone on strike for the first time in 20 years as part of an ‘anger march’ against working conditions and the rising suicide rate within the force, as well as against planned pension reforms. Unions say 52 police officers killed themselves this year, which also saw the gilet jaunes ‘yellow vest’ movement take place alongside a massive breakdown in law and order that forced policemen to work multiple weekends without break.
A press conference by the head of the police union in Paris revealed that the attacker was a ‘model employee’ who had no problems with his work and displayed no signs pointing to unstable behaviour. The attacker reportedly worked with the police station for 20 years.
While police officers have ben targetted in attacks in the past, notably by gunmen in 2016 and 2017, an attack by a police officer on police officers is unprecedented.
