French president, rocker honor 2015 attack victims

Thousands have gathered in Paris as President François Hollande led a commemoration for the victims of terrorist attacks a year ago.

Police in Paris shot dead a man wielding a meat cleaver and a fake suicide vest outside a police station, a year after militants killed 12 at Charlie Hebdo’s offices.

A plaque unveiled in the Place de la Republique pays tribute to victims of both the Charlie Hebdo and November attacks.

France is still after the Paris strikes of November, carried out by gunmen linked to the State that was Islamic.

“For these enemies who attack their compatriots, who tear apart the contract that unites us, there can be no worthy explanation”, he said, acknowledging the “immense anguish” of the Jewish community.

Investigations identified the man as 20 year old Sallah Ali, a prominent thief born homeless in Casablanca, Morocco, according to the French newspaper L’Express. “This identity has been checked with the intelligence services and he is not known under this name by the intelligence services”, Molins told France-Inter radio Friday.

The attempted attack on the police station in Paris came exactly one year, nearly to the minute, after the attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine. It also said his nationality was Tunisian instead of Moroccan.

The Place de la Republique re-emerged as a gathering place for defiance in the face of tragedy after last January’s attacks on the office of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, shortly followed by a similar assault on a kosher supermarket.

Mr Molins said the man was carrying a mobile phone with a German SIM card, with French media saying it contained several messages in Arabic, some of which were sent from Germany.

French President Francois Hollande, waves out of his vehicle after he honored late policewoman Clarissa Jean-Philippe who died in last year’s January attacks in Montrouge south of Paris, Saturday Jan. 9, 2016.

Speaking to state-run TV channel France 2, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said honouring the victims at the first anniversary of the fatal attacks was a message of “the strength to say that we are here, we are alive”.

Belgian authorities said Friday they are concerned about the possibility of new attacks in their country to mark the anniversary of the January 15, 2015 police raid in the eastern city of Verviers that foiled a suspected plot by Islamic extremists.