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Identity of attacker shot dead at Paris police station not confirmed: Prosecutor

Xinhua, January 8, 2016 Adjust font size:

Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins on Friday expressed doubts about the identity of the man shot dead by police when he tried to attack officers in a northern suburb of Paris on Thursday.

The man tried to push his way into a police station in Paris carrying a meat cleaver and shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is great). He attempted to stab policemen before being shot dead.

Citing judicial and police sources, local media said the man was identified by his fingerprints as Ali Sallah, a Moroccan born in 1995 in Casablanca. He was reportedly homeless and known to police for theft in 2013 in the southern French region of Var.

Speaking to France Inter radio, Molins cast doubts over the attacker's identity, saying he may have given a false one when police intercepted him in 2015.

"I am not at all sure the identity he gave was real," he said.

According to Molins, a sheet of paper found on the man gave a different name and a Tunisian nationality. The paper also professed his Muslim faith and was accompanied by a drawn flag of Daesh.

Paris prosecutor said messages on his mobile phone in Arabic and German were being examining to determine the attacker's real identity.

In an interview with iTele news channel, Justice Minister Christiane Taubira on Thursday said the assailant wasn't known for Islamist radicalization. Endit