French police shot and killed a man as he tried to attack a police station Thursday, the first anniversary of the Islamic extremist assault on the offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine.
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He was wearing what appeared to be an explosive vest, but it turned out to be a fake, a police source told CNN.
The police official said police are viewing the incident as “more likely terrorism” than a standard criminal act.
A French Interior Ministry spokesman said the man shouted “Allah Akbar” during the attack.
Coulibaly was shot dead by French riot police who stormed the kosher supermarket Porte de Vincennes, east Paris, after several hours.
“We have a special connection because our school is French but we talk about press freedom issues from other countries too”, he said.
Following the attacks, the Paris prosecutor’s office says 54 people were detained for defending or glorifying terrorism.
One day ahead of the anniversary of the terrorist attack on the publication’s headquarters in Paris that killed 12 people, Charlie Hebdo released one million copies of a special edition.
“Faced with these adversaries, it is essential that every service – police, gendarmerie, intelligence, military – work in ideal harmony, with the greatest transparency, and that they share all the information at their disposal”, the president said. A total of 17 people died, as did all three gunmen.
Following the January attacks, the government announced it planned to give police better equipment and hire more intelligence agents.
In the second wave of attacks on November 13, Islamist militants mowed down people in Paris cafes and a concert hall and attacked a stadium in what was the nation’s worst post-war atrocity.
Copies of the latest edition of French weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo displayed at a kiosk in Nice, France, today.
The official newspaper of the Vatican, L’Osservatore Romano, ran an editorial trashing Charlie Hebdo’s choice of cover this week, according to CNN.
“This past year we’ve had to invest almost 2 million euros to secure our office, which is an enormous sum”, he said.
Before the attack, Charlie Hebdo was facing financial ruin and barely managing to sell 30,000 issues a week.
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“We know that ISIL or al Qaeda is encouraging (such attacks) in Europe, not only in France”, she told CNN, using another name for ISIS.
