The hammer-wielding man who attacked police officers patrolling in front of Notre Dame Cathedral appears to have radicalized himself through the internet and was unknown to French police and intelligence services, the chief prosecutor in Paris said Saturday. Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins told a news conference Saturday that the man had the "profile of a neophyte" that counterterrorism services fear as much as extremists who are trained to carry out attacks. The man described himself as a Sunni Muslim who started a "quite radical" religious observance about 10 months ago, Molins said. The youngest of a family of 12 children, the assailant moved to Sweden in 2001, where he studied journalism. His thesis supervisor, who last saw him in June 2016, described him as a "strong advocate of Western democracy," the prosecutor said.

Source: ABC News June 10, 2017 15:35 UTC