A man was shot dead by police officers in Barbes, northern Paris, Daily Mail reports.
The armed man wearing a fake suicide belt who was shot dead trying to attack a police station in Paris was carrying a letter where he pledged allegiance to ISIS.
The man had been trying to enter the police station in Barbes, northern Paris, shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ and threatening officers with a knife on the anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo attacks.
The convicted thief was carrying a mobile phone and a sheet of paper showing the black flag of ISIS, and claims of responsibility written in Arabic, the Paris prosecutor said in a statement.
‘A mobile phone and a piece of paper, on which appear the Daesh flag and a clear written claim in Arabic, were found on the individual,’ prosecutor Francois Molins said, referring to the Arabic acronym for ISIS.
French officials say the man was wearing a belt made out to look like a suicide vest, but a bomb-disposal unit has since confirmed that it was a fake.
Police have cleared hundreds of people from the neighborhood, an area where a significant percentage of residents have multi-ethnic or immigrant background, amid fears that other assailants could be at large.
‘The man did have a belt, but it was a fake. The bomb-disposal unit confirmed it was a fake,’ the police union source said.
A Paris police official said police are viewing the incident as ‘more likely terrorism’ than a standard criminal act.
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.
A witness said he had heard ‘two or three shots’ shortly before 11am GMT, before the man was on the ground.
The Goutte d’Or neighborhood in Barbes, Paris’ 18th arrondissement, a multi-ethnic district not far from the Gare du Nord train station, was locked down, as were two metro lines running through the area, though they later reopened.
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