A French soldier shot and wounded an attacker at the Louvre Museum in France early Friday morning. According to a report from The Washington Post, the assailant was wielding a machete and a briefcase and attempted to attack security forces outside the museum after being denied entry into the Carrousel du Louvre. The soldier fired five rounds into the attacker's stomach and suffered a head wound during the altercation with the assailant, who was wielding a knife.
France's interior ministry tweeted that the suspect remained alive after the attack and an additional suspect in connection with the event was apprehended and that no explosives were found in the briefcase. Though at the time of the attack there were at least 1,000 people inside the museum, authorities have safely evacuated the area. Bernard Cazeneuve, France’s prime minister called the attack "terrorist in nature" and President Donald Trump jumped on Twitter to add his own commentary on the event, tweeting, "A new radical Islamic terrorist has just attacked in Louvre Museum in Paris. Tourists were locked down. France on edge again. GET SMART U.S."
You can view the video and read an excerpt of the report below. Stay tuned as more details on this story develop.
Details about the suspect were not immediately disclosed, but French media reported that he shouted “Allahu akbar,” or “God is great” in Arabic, as he charged at the soldier.
The incident immediately stoked fears across Paris after a series of terrorist attacks in the French capital and across France in the past two years, including the November 2015 rampage through Paris that claimed 130 lives and last July’s truck ramming in Nice that left more than 80 people dead.
