PARIS: The knifeman who killed one person and wounded four in a suspected terror attack in central Paris was born in the Muslim Russian republic of Chechnya who came to France as a child, sources close to the inquiry said Sunday.
Police have identified the 20-year-old attacker as Khamzat A., who grew up with his family in Strasbourg, eastern France, home to a large community of Chechen refugees, one of the sources told AFP.
The parents of the attacker have been taken into custody, and the family's home in the northern 18th Arrondissement of Paris was searched overnight.
Sources said Khamzat was on both of France's main watchlists for suspected radicals -- the so-called "S file" as well as a more targeted File for the Prevention of Terrorist Radicalisation (FSPRT), which focuses on people judged to be terror threats.
"It concerns an individual on the S file lists since 2016, who obtained French citizenship in 2010 after his mother was naturalised," government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said on French television.
But a source close to the inquiry said Khamzat was not considered a priority target "because it was his relatives that alerted the security services, as opposed to his behaviour, actions or ideas."
Another source said he had been questioned by anti-terror investigators last year "because he knew a man who was in contact with a person who had gone to Syria."
Witnesses said Khamzat shouted "Allahu akbar" (God is greatest) during the stabbing spree on Saturday night, killing one man and wounding four other people before being shot and killed by police.
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
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