An officer in the building shot Gorchene after he refused an order to drop the knife, which had a 22-centimetre (nine inch) blade. Investigators discovered that he watched an Islamist jihad propaganda video on his phone shortly before the attack, and a Koran was found on his scooter afterwards, Ricard said. “His father revealed that his son had adopted a rigorous practice of Islam,” Ricard said. x‘Barbaric act’France has suffered a wave of Islamist terror attacks that have killed more than 250 people in recent years, with Ricard saying the Rambouillet attack was the 17th since 2014. But other critics say Macron’s efforts to tackle religious extremism, including making it easier for authorities to track foreign funding of mosques, risk stigmatising or alienating French Muslims.

Source: The Guardian April 25, 2021 12:40 UTC