Terror convict, recently released, shot dead by Paris police after alleged knife attack near Arc de Triomphe
A man who had recently been released from prison on a terrorism charge was shot and killed by a police officer after he allegedly tried to attack another officer with a knife and scissors near the Arc de Triomphe in Paris Friday.
The incident happened near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the ceremony for relighting the eternal flame, which is carried out nightly.
The unidentified man, who is a French national born in 1978, allegedly tried to attack an officer guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and was shot by another officer.
He died of his wounds at a hospital, the French counterterrorism prosecutor’s office said.
He was sentenced to 17 years in prison in Brussels in 2013 on a terrorist-related offense of attempted murder of three police officers in Belgium and had just been released in December.
The man served 12 years in prison and was placed under police supervision with routine checks, the French prosecution office said.
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The French counterterrorism prosecutor’s office said it had opened an investigation into the man related to his ties to a "terrorist enterprise" before his death.
The man was held in a Belgian prison until 2015, when he was transferred to France and released on Christmas Eve.
The Arc de Triomphe was closed to guests after the incident, which had no other reported injuries.
The Arc de Triomphe, at the end of the Champs-Élysées, is one of Paris and Europe’s most popular sights, and millions of tourists visit the monument in the heart of the French capital each year.
Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report.