A man armed with a machete shouted ‘Allahu Akhbar‘ (God is great in Arabic) before attacking a soldier posted outside the Louvre Museum in Paris on Friday morning. The soldier was lightly injured in the head but succeeded in shooting the attacker multiple times in the stomach, seriously injuring him.
The assailant was wearing a backpack at the time of the attack, raising concerns that it contained explosives. Police sappers later determined the pack did not contain explosives.
In a statement, French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said that the attack was “terrorist in nature.”
“We are dealing with an attack from an individual who was clearly aggressive and represented a direct threat, and whose comments lead us to believe that he wished to carry out a terrorist incident,” said Michel Cadot, the head of the French capital’s police force, in a statement.
