PARIS (Sputnik) – According to preliminary information, a man armed with a knife and an object similar to an explosive device was trying to enter the police station. Police opened fire on the perpetrator, seriously injuring him. The man died shortly afterwards.
"The man may have been wearing something that could be a suicide belt," French Interior Ministry Spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet told BFM TV, adding that it's too early to determine whether it was operational or not.
#Barbes Police tell neighbors to close their windows & balconies. "It's dangerous" pic.twitter.com/sZ6jw9UOS5
— Anna Polonyi (@akilincs) January 7, 2016
France Info radio station earlier reported that the man was wearing an explosive belt and yelled “Allahu Akbar!”
L'homme abattu par les policiers ce matin à #Paris portait une ceinture d'explosifs: nos informations https://t.co/jVKMpAWMI8
— France Info (@franceinfo) January 7, 2016
"According to our colleagues he wanted to blow himself up," an Alternative Police union official told the press. "He shouted Allahu Akbar and had wires protruding from his clothes. That's why the police officer opened fire."
A witness heard several shots and said that police cordoned off the area of the incident.
Le quartier de Barbès est bouclé par l'armée et la police pic.twitter.com/zvZ83gxf09
— Jonathan RT France (@Jonathan_RTfr) January 7, 2016
However, Police union sources told Reuters the explosives belt the perpetrator wore was a fake.
"The man did have a belt, but it was a fake. The bomb-disposal unit confirmed it was a fake," the police union source said.
According to the BFMTV television channel, the sappers who had arrived at the scene determined that the belt was an imitation.
France's Minister of the Interior Bernard Cazeneuve is on his way to the police station, according to the ministry's spokesman Henri Brande.
The incident occured on the anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo attack, which took place in Paris on January 7, 2015. Two gunmen broke into the office of the satirical magazine and opened fire, killing 12 people including two policemen.
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