Following up on this morning latest terrorist attack in Paris, in which a terrorist suspect attacked soldiers with a machete near the Louvre art gallery in Paris, Reuters reports that according to a French prosecutor, the assailant has been identified as Abdullah Reda al-Hamamy, a 29-year-old Egyptian born in Dakahlia, a province northeast of Cairo, who was living in the United Arab Emirates.
Michel Cadot, the head of Paris police, said the man was shouting "Allahu Akbar" and injured the soldier's scalp before being shot at. He confirmed that the attack was being treated as a terrorist incident but they were still trying to determine whether he was acting alone or under instruction.
AP adds that according to prosecutor Francois Molins the French soldiers' quick reactions put an end to "a terror attack" Friday morning at one of Paris' most iconic tourist attractions. He says "everything shows that the assailant was very determined." He added that the attacker, who was shot by the soldiers, is in a life-threatening condition in a hospital.
Photo taken by a tourist with a mobile phone shows a soldier opening fire at a man in the Louvre Museum
Molins said the attacker had no identity papers but investigators used his cellphone to find out that he was a resident in the United Arab Emirates who came to Paris on a tourist visa on Jan. 26. Two days later he bought two military machetes at a gun store in Paris.
AP also adds that several police raids are underway in the French capital. A police union official, Luc Poignant, said one of the raids took place on Rue de Ponthieu, a street near the Champs-Elysees Avenue, the city's famed boulevard.
As we reported on Friday morning, a man attacked French soldiers on Friday morning near the Louvre, and they shot him while other security forces locked down the famous museum. He has been hospitalized and the French president says he will be questioned "when it is possible to do so."
Following the attack on Friday morning US President Donald Trump cited it as justification for his controversial ban on citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries entering the US – but neither Egypt or Dubai are on Mr Trump's list of banned countries. It is unknown at this moment if Trump will expand the list to include these two countries upon learning of the suspect's origins.