French Soldier Shoots Machete-Wielding Attacker At Louvre

By Bill Chappell

Published February 3, 2017 at 5:59 AM CST

Officers cordon off an area outside the Louvre Museum near the shopping area where a man attacked soldiers in Paris on Friday.

A machete-wielding man shouted "Allahu Akbar" and attacked a security patrol near the Louvre Museum on Friday, prompting a soldier to shoot the man, wounding him, the head of Paris police says.

The attack was "obviously of a terrorist nature," French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve says, according to France 24.

One soldier sustained a minor head injury in the attack near the entrance of the Carrousel du Louvre, an underground shopping mall, says Michel Cadot, head of Paris' police force.

"The Paris police chief said the attacker tried to enter the Louvre's underground shops with two backpacks," Jake Cigainero reports for NPR's Newscast unit. "Authorities have not said what was in the bags but confirmed there were no explosives."

The soldier fired a total of five rounds, seriously wounding the attacker in the stomach, police say.

A second man has been arrested, NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports on Morning Edition. Eleanor adds that in Paris, "there are these soldiers and patrols all over Paris."

France has been on high alert for a year now, she adds, calling the situation "the new normal."

French President Francois Hollande, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo and other officials are saluting the soldiers' response and professionalism, with Hidalgo saying the soldiers acted to defend both themselves and civilians who were nearby.