The main suspect in the attack in Paris with a large knife - a "machete" with which he wounded two people on the street on Friday, "confessed his crime" to the police where he was taken into custody, sources close to the investigation learned today.
Detained shortly after the attack, the 18-year-old, who says he was born in Pakistan, said he carried out the attack because the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo republished caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, which he "could not stand," the source said.
The attack happened yesterday in front of the "Premiieres Llignes" news agency, which is in the building where the "Charlie Hebdo" premises were at the time of the deadly terrorist attack in 2015, also carried out because of controversial cartoons.
The editorial office of "Charlie Hebdo", which moved to a secret location four years ago, has been the target of threats since September 2, when it republished caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad on the occasion of the start of the trial of the accomplices of the perpetrators of the 2015 attack.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanen said on Friday that it was clearly an act of Islamist terrorism and condemned the "bloody attack on France".
Before the arrest, the attacker cut two employees of the news agency with a "machete" in front of the building, while they were smoking on the street, said the co-director of the agency.
They were wounded in the upper body, and one of them in the head, he added.
Their lives are not in danger, Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Friday.
After the attack, in addition to the suspect, six more people were arrested, one of whom, an Algerian, was detained near the scene of the attack, released last night because his statement that he followed the attacker who threatened him was confirmed.
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