France reviews terror threat after police employee killed in suspected jihadist attack near Paris
- Chief anti-terror prosecutor Jean-Francois Ricard confirmed ‘comments made by the assailant’ indicated a terror motive and said the attack may have been premeditated
- French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said security would be stepped up at stations nationwide
Authorities in France on Saturday detained a fourth person as anti-terrorism investigators questioned three others, seeking to establish a motive and uncover any possible ties to extremism after a police official was fatally stabbed at a police station outside Paris.
French police killed the Tunisian suspect in the Friday slaying of an unarmed administrative employee at the entrance of her police station in the town of Rambouillet.
The suspect’s father is among the four currently held, a judicial official said. A couple who had housed the suspect at one point and a member of his entourage, who was detained on Saturday, also were being questioned.
The victim, a National Police employee, had left the station to extend her time on a parking meter and was followed into the entry area by the attacker, who was shot to death by a police officer.
The attack jolted the French government into taking a deeper look at new steps needed to protect police officers. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin is to present a bill shortly giving new teeth to an anti-terrorism law, the national intelligence coordinator, Laurent Nunez, said on Saturday on BMFTV.
“(Police) know we have a difficult fight against Islamist terrorism … the fight won’t stop tomorrow or the next day,” Darmanin said after meeting with police in the Brittany town of Quimper, which he was visiting.
