A letter pledging allegiance to Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) was discovered in the car of the man who rammed his vehicle into two police motorcyclists in the suburbs of Paris on Monday, seriously injuring both officers.
The note was discovered along with a knife, France’s anti-terrorism prosecutor (PNAT) said in a statement. Due to the finding, an investigation of “attempted murder of government officials in connection with the membership of a terrorist organization” has been launched, the office added.
In the letter, the driver pledged allegiance to IS and promised to sacrifice his life for the goal of establishing Sharia law everywhere around the globe, Jean-Charles Brisard, the head of the Center for the Analysis of Terrorism (CAT), said.
The suspect, who is described as a 29-year-old local man, was arrested after the attack and taken into custody. He wasn’t previously known to police for having ties with any radicals, according to the prosecutor.
The man has already undergone psychological examination and was declared sane.
The two injured officers were carrying out routine checks in the Paris suburb of Colombes when a black BMW crashed into their motorcycles at high speed. Footage from the scene showed one of the bikes sandwiched between a police car and the BMW driven by the suspect, with debris from the second police vehicle scattered on the road.
The officers were rushed to hospital, with one of them reportedly put in a medically-induced coma.
Since the Islamic State shooting and bombing attacks which killed 130 people in Paris in November 2015, France has been plagued by a series of stabbing and ramming incidents in which radicalized individuals have targeted both police and civilians.
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