The information, confirmed by the French presidency, comes shortly after Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne raised Vigipirate’s anti-terror alert to the highest level over the attack in Arras, in the north of the country, which injured three other people. .
Operation Sentinelle was launched in 2015 by the then president, socialist François Hollande, following the wave of ‘jihadist’ attacks that hit the country that year (Bataclan and Charlie Hebdo attacks).
This system, which has been active since then, has 10,000 personnel, including 3,000 in reserve, and is mobilized in response to terrorist alerts.
Since 2012, ‘jihadist’ terrorist attacks in France have killed 272 people and injured 1,200, mainly in 2015 and 2016.
The young Chechen, who was captured during the attack and is being interrogated by authorities, was followed by the French secret services because of his Islamic affinities and was even interrogated by police on the eve of the attack.
The officers then released him because they found no sign of danger.
The attacker belongs to a Russian-Chechen family who arrived in France in 2008 and tried to be deported in 2014, although only the father was ultimately deported several years later.
The far right called for the resignation of Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin for underestimating the danger.
Darmanin himself said on the TF1 channel on Friday that “there is certainly a link between what happened and the Middle East”, referring to the war situation between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Source: DN
