French Police Commander, Partner Stabbed to Death in ISIS-Linked Attack

A French Police chief was stabbed to death in front of his home late Monday and his partner’s body was found inside, according to the country’s officials.

The knife-wielding attacker, convicted for terrorist offences and claiming allegiance to the Islamic State terrorist group, repeatedly stabbed the 42-year-old commander before barricading himself inside the house in a Paris suburb.

He was eventually shot dead by members of an elite police unit after attempts to get him to surrender failed.

The French attacker was identified by Le Monde and RMC radio as Larossi Abballa, 25, who was known to police for radicalism and prior conviction for terrorism when he helped Islamist militants go to Pakistan in 2013, Yahoo reports.

The Islamic State group appear to be claiming the attack as its Amaq news agency wrote on their telegram channel after the strike: “Source to Amaq agency: Islamic State fighter kills deputy chief of the police station in the city of Les Mureaux and his wife.”

French authorities say the couple’s 3-year-old son was “in shock but unharmed” and receiving medical attention, while the slain officer has been identified as Jean-Baptiste Salvaing, 42, an assistant chief in the nearby district of Les Mureaux.

President Francois Hollande held an early morning emergency meeting over the killings, as it would be the first militant strike on French soil since the government imposed a state of emergency after multiple attacks on Paris in November that killed 130 people.

Monday’s killings took place despite the country being on high alert for terrorists following the European championships which began on Friday.

This is coming days after an ISIS agent, Omar Mateen, carried out the worst mass shooting in US history at a Gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, early Sunday killing 49 people.