At least one dead, suspect killed after stabbing outside Paris

The man had attacked "several people" in a park in Villejuif before he was shot and killed by Paris police. Police have not yet commented on a possible motive for the attack. 

Police union official Yves Lefebvre said officers fired repeatedly because they feared the man was wearing an explosive belt and might blow himself up.

Police cordoned off the area around the park. The No. 2 at the interior ministry, Laurent Nunez, travelled to the scene of the stabbings accompanied by Paris police chief Didier Lallement.

Some managed to evade him, but the man claimed at least one life – that of a 56-year-old Villejuif local, according to the commune's mayor, Franck Le Bohellec.

The victim "was walking with his wife when the attacker approached; he wanted to protect his wife and it was he who received the knife blows", Le Bohellec said.

According to a source close to the inquiry, another man was seriously wounded in the attack and a woman sustained light injuries. 

The attacker fled and was later shot dead by police in the neighbouring suburb of L'Haÿ-les-Roses.

He had made his way to a shopping centre "where he seemingly intended to continue his attack", L'Haÿ-les-Roses Mayor Vincent Jeanbrun told BFM-TV.

"Luckily the police were quickly alerted and made their way rapidly to the scene where they neutralised him by killing him," Jeanbrun said.

A spokesman for the prosecutor whose office is handling the case said the attacker had been on medication for mental health issues that had led him to be hospitalised in recent months.

“There is no evidence at this stage suggesting he was radicalised,” the spokesman said.
 

(FRANCE 24 with AP, REUTERS and AFP)