Police try to determine identity of Paris police attacker

Investigators found a cellphone on the man, a piece of paper with the flag of the Islamic State on it, and an “unequivocal handwritten claim of responsibility” in Arabic, according to Molins’ office. He also had a phone with a German SIM card, Molins said.

Luc Poignant, a police union official, said the man may have been wearing an explosives vest, and cried out “Allahu Akbar” or “God is great” in Arabic. The government has announced new measures extending police powers to allow officers to use their weapons to “neutralize someone who has just committed one or several murders and is likely to repeat these crimes”.

“On Thursday morning, a man attempted to attack a policeman at the reception of the police station before being hit by shots from the police”, Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said.

Two French-born brothers killed 11 people inside the magazine’s office on January 7, 2015.

That is one criticism of French anti-terror efforts, which include prosecutions of people who are suspected of planning terrorist attacks or associating with the people who plan them.

The Paris prosecutor’s office says it is opening a terrorism investigation after a man carrying a butcher’s knife and wearing fake explosives showed up at a police station in northern Paris and was killed by police.

Polonyi told Reuters that her sister, in the flat with her, had seen the incident. She said the police shouted at the man and that he then started running towards them before they shot him.

Police have cleared hundreds of people from the neighborhood of an attack on a Paris police station amid fears that other assailants could be at large.

Mr. Molins-as the lead counterterrorism prosecutor in France-is coordinating the probes into both major attacks previous year, as well as smaller ones.

Hollande had said earlier that a “terrorist threat” would continue to weigh on France.

Belgian investigators believe explosives used in the attacks in Paris in November may have been made in an apartment in Brussels that was rented under a false name and where a fingerprint of a key fugitive was found.

The incident _ coming exactly one year after the Charlie Hebdo attacks _ immediately prompted fears of terrorism in a city that has endured two sensational attacks in the last year.

The organisation cautioned against what it called “the insidious imposition of a “religious correctness” that poses a major threat to the journalistic freedom to inform others (and make them laugh)”, in a statement.