Update | ‘This is for Syria!’: Paris police shoot hammer attacker outside Notre Dame cathedral
Tourists huddle inside famed cathedral during dramatic incident in heart of French capital
A hammer-wielding assailant shouting, “This is for Syria!” attacked police outside Notre Dame Cathedral on Tuesday, setting off a security scramble at one of Paris’ best-known landmarks.
But he was wounded by police gunfire before he could seriously injure anyone.
The abortive attack marked the second strike in four days at a landmark site in a European capital, coming on the heels of a far more serious assault that left seven people dead and dozens hurt in London. French authorities identified Tuesday’s attacker as a young Algerian man carrying student identification, and said he was armed with a pair of kitchen knives in addition to the hammer.
Hundreds of tourists were trapped for a time inside the soaring 12th-century cathedral, whose flying buttresses and stained-glass windows make it one of Paris’ most photographed sites. Visitors and locals alike scattered as gunfire rang out in the cathedral’s broad plaza alongside the River Seine in central Paris.
Police swiftly converged on the area, shouting at passersby to stay back. Onlookers immediately began tweeting about the unfolding event.
Among the tourists taking shelter inside Notre Dame was Nancy Soderberg, a former White House deputy national security adviser and ambassador to the United Nations. She was visiting the cathedral with her 16-year-old niece when a priest announced that there had been “an incident” outside.
