PARIS (AP) — French authorities have opened a terrorism inquiry after a man wielding a knife killed two people and wounded five others as residents of a town south of Lyon shopped for food amid a nationwide coronavirus lockdown.
France’s counter-terrorism prosecutor’s office said the assailant was arrested near the scene of Saturday's attack in the town of Romans-sur-Isere as he was kneeling on the sidewalk praying in Arabic.
Prosecutors said that authorities found handwritten documents at his home that included a complaint about living in a “country of unbelievers.”
They say an acquaintance of his also was detained. Analysts say some extremist groups see the upheaval from the virus pandemic as an opportunity to get supporters.