LA ERDRE: A “known radical” suspected of carrying out a knife attack in France died from injuries sustained in a shootout with police on Friday, hours after badly wounding a female officer in another act of violence against police.

The man, who was on a terrorist watch-list according to the interior ministry, had been on the run after the attack in La Chapelle-sur-Erdre near the western city of Nantes.

He had also been diagnosed as schizophrenic, according to a source close to the investigation.

A total of 250 officers were trying to find him, and two gendarmes were wounded in the exchange of fire that led to his arrest, authorities said.

No motive for the stabbing has emerged, but the attacker was “a known radical and suffering from a very serious psychiatric illness”, one source involved in the investigation said.

After stabbing the officer at a police station, inflicting life-threatening injuries, the suspect stole her service weapon and fled on foot.

The police officer was taken to hospital and later declared to be out of danger.

“My first thoughts go to the police officer who was seriously wounded,” Prime Minister Jean Castex wrote on Twitter. “She has all my support and... the support of the entire government.”

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, arriving at the scene in the afternoon, confirmed that the suspect was known to police as a radical.

“This French-born French national, around 40 years old and known to police services, was released from prison in 2016 where he was pointed out because of a strict practice of… radicalisation,” said Darmanin.

That had led to his inclusion on a watch-list of potential terrorist sympathisers, he added.

He was arrested in 2013 for aggravated theft and ordered after his release to follow treatment for schizophrenia.

Darmanin said the suspect had opened fire on the officers who then responded. He had died shortly after the shootout.

A photo reporter at the scene said he heard around a dozen rounds discharged in two rapid bursts during the standoff, in a residential area.

Special police forces carrying shields and wearing helmets used rubbish bins and bushes for cover as they opened fire.

One witness said he saw a civilian on the ground surrounded by police after the shootout.

Pupils in the area’s primary and middle schools were kept indoors while police tracked the suspect, a city official told AFP.

“We drew the curtains and told the children to lie on the ground. They’ve been there for two hours,” one local teacher told AFP by text message during the manhunt.

The suspect’s former lawyer, Vincent de la Morandiere, who had defended him on a number of occasions, told AFP that his client’s psychological state had “deteriorated gradually during his various spells in prison”.

Published in Dawn, May 29th, 2021