The man who threatened bystanders with a weapon in the southern French city of Avignon on Thursday morning was being treated by a psychiatrist, the French justice to local media. According to the police, he had no terrorist motive. According to witnesses he would have brought a Nazi salute.
Earlier French media reported that he would have shouted “Allahu akbar” (God is the greatest), but the prosecutor insists that this is not true. The police now assume that no terrorist motives were involved, the news agency writes AFP.
The 33-year-old man is said to have been treated by a psychiatrist for incoherent thoughts. These would not have been religious in nature.
Officers shot the man dead near a psychiatric hospital on Thursday morning after threatening passers-by with a gun. No one else would have been injured.
Previously, French media reported that the man allegedly attacked agents with a knife. Police later clarified that he allegedly threatened bystanders, not with a knife, but with a gun.
Incident followed after attack in Nice
The incident took place less than two hours after the stabbing in a church in the southern French city of Nice. Thursday morning, three people were killed in a terrorist attack.
French authorities confirmed at a press conference on Thursday evening that two of the victims had their throats cut. The third victim is said to have died from stab wounds.
The incidents that took place in France on Thursday follow the murder of the Samuel Paty. This French teacher was probably beheaded by an extremist Islamist two weeks ago in Paris. Paty had shown a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad in a lesson on freedom of speech.
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