Paris terror suspect turns himself in to police

The second suspect in the latest Paris attack has handed himself in to police, as more evidence has emerged linking the incident to terror group ISIS.

The suspect surrendered to Belgian police on Friday morning following the attack on the Champs-Elysees on Thursday night, during which one police officer was killed and two others were injured.

The main perpetrator, a French national who opened fire with an automatic Kalashnikov rifle, was killed by police. AFP reported on Friday that a note backing ISIS was discovered at the scene, adding weight to evidence that the attack was terror-related.

The gunman was known to police in relation to Islamist terrorist activity and was detained and released as recently as February for threatening a police officer, Press Association reported, citing French officials.

How the attack unfolded

At the around 9 p.m. local time (CET) on Thursday night, the attacker jumped out of a car and shot at a police van on the Champs-Elysees in central Paris.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack through Amaq, a news agency associated with the terror group. The attacker was known to ISIS as Abu Yussef, or “the Belgian,” according to AFP. The Guardian said the suspect was 39, and his home was in Seine-et-Marne, outside Paris.

The two injured officers are in serious condition, according to Reuters, citing the French Interior Ministry, despite prior reports that one of them had died.

Shortly after the attack, French President Francois Hollande said authorities were convinced it was “terrorist-related,” according to Reuters. But Reuters also cited three police sources who say it may have been an attempted armed robbery, and a French Interior Ministry spokesman said it was too early to identify a motive.

“We must all be aware that our security forces do work that is particularly difficult, that they are exposed, as one can see again this evening, and that they have the nation’s full support,” Hollande said.

The gunman was a French national who was known to police for “radical Islamist activities,” according to CNN. He had shot and wounded three police officers in 2001, and had also been involved in violent robberies, CNN reported. These reports are yet to be confirmed by the French authorities.

However, authorities searched his home in a suburb of eastern Paris on Thursday.

Election overshadowed

The attack overshadowed the final day of campaigning for the first round of the French election, which takes place on Sunday. A poll, carried out before Thursday’s attack for BFM TV and L’Express, shows that centrist Emmanuel Macron remains favourite to triumph with 24% of the vote.

Thursday’s events could play into the hands of far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, however, because of her strong anti-immigration policies. Le Pen said on Friday that France should immediately reinstate border checks and expel foreigners who are on the watch lists of intelligence services, according to Reuters.

“Today fundamentalist Islam is waging war and… the measures are not being taken to limit the risks,” she is quoted as telling French radio station RFI. The BFM TV and L’Express poll puts Le Pen in second place with 21.5% of the vote.

But French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Le Pen was seeking “to exploit fear without any shame.” Cazeneuve added that the attack was not immigration-related, according to Reuters.

French presidential frontrunner Emmanuel Macron warned France to rise above the fear of terrorism. “Don’t yield to fear, don’t yield to division and intimidation. Our generation must rise to this challenge,” he said in a televised statement from his campaign headquarters.

World leaders respond

US President Donald Trump acknowledged the attack during a press conference on Thursday. “Condolences from our country to the people of France. It’s a terrible thing that’s going on in the world today,” he told reporters.

“It looks like another terrorist attack. And what can you say – it never ends,” he added. “We have to be strong and we have to be vigilant. And I’ve been saying it for a long time.”

British Prime Minister Theresa May also voiced her condemnation of another night of terror in France. The country was rocked by an attack on Nice last year, when 86 people were killed after a truck was driven into crowds on Bastille Day, and Paris in November 2015, when 130 were murdered in coordinated suicide bombings and mass shootings around the city.

This story is developing.