{"id":291002,"date":"2017-02-03T13:29:53","date_gmt":"2017-02-03T13:29:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=291002"},"modified":"2017-02-03T13:29:53","modified_gmt":"2017-02-03T13:29:53","slug":"french-soldier-shoots-attacker-outside-louvre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=291002","title":{"rendered":"French soldier shoots attacker outside Louvre"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">A French soldier guarding the Louvre in Paris has shot a man who tried to attack a security patrol with a machete shouting &#8220;Allahu Akbar&#8221;, police say.<\/p>\n<p>The man, who tried to gain entry to the Louvre&#8217;s shopping centre, was shot in the abdomen and seriously injured.<\/p>\n<p>One soldier sustained a slight head injury.<\/p>\n<p>PM Bernard Cazeneuve said the attack was &#8220;terrorist in nature&#8221;. The Louvre is home to numerous celebrated art works, including the Mona Lisa.<\/p>\n<p>The incident began at 10:00 local time (09:00 GMT) in the Carrousel du Louvre shopping centre at stairs leading to an entrance to the museum itself.<\/p>\n<p>A patrol of four soldiers are reported to have tried to subdue the assailant using non-lethal force after he rushed at them.<\/p>\n<p>When this failed and after one soldier was injured, five shots were fired. The suspected attacker was taken to hospital.<\/p>\n<p>Two rucksacks belonging to the suspect, who shouted &#8220;God is greatest&#8221; in Arabic, have been inspected but no explosives were found. A second person has been arrested.<\/p>\n<p>Little is known about the main suspect, who is reported to be in his 30s and without identity papers.<\/p>\n<p>Hundreds of visitors in the Louvre at the time were evacuated gradually after security checks.<\/p>\n<p>As the attack unfolded, they were told by security staff to crouch on the floor.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption full-width\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image__img js-image-replace\" src=\"http:\/\/ichef-1.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/C277\/production\/_93938794_louvre_paris_france_map624.png\" alt=\"Map showing the Louvre in Paris\" width=\"624\" height=\"375\" data-highest-encountered-width=\"624\" \/><\/span><\/figure>\n<p>France has been on a high state of alert since the Paris attacks of 2015. Thousands of troops on the streets form part of the stepped-up security response.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A series of assaults by gunmen and suicide bombers claimed by so-called Islamic State killed 130 people in November 2015.<\/p>\n<p>In January of the same year, 17 people were killed in an attack on the Charlie Hebdo magazine and linked shootings.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape has-caption full-width\">\n<figure style=\"width: 976px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image__img js-image-replace\" src=\"http:\/\/ichef-1.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/ECB1\/production\/_93939506_mediaitem93938791.jpg\" alt=\"The Louvre museum in Paris, 3 February 2017, after an attempted attack\" width=\"976\" height=\"549\" data-highest-encountered-width=\"624\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image copyrightJIAO LIYANG Visitors to the Louvre were told to crouch on the floor, seen in this picture taken by a Chinese tourist<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Last July, 86 people were killed when a lorry ploughed through crowds celebrating Bastille Day in Nice.<\/p>\n<p>Though still hugely popular, the Louvre has suffered a drop in visitor numbers amid terrorism fears.<\/p>\n<p>It was ranked as the world&#8217;s most visited museum in 2015 but there are doubts whether it still holds the top spot.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A French soldier guarding the Louvre in Paris has shot a man who tried to attack a security patrol with a machete shouting &#8220;Allahu Akbar&#8221;, police say. The man, who tried to gain entry to the Louvre&#8217;s shopping centre, was shot in the abdomen and seriously injured. One soldier sustained a slight head injury. PM [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-291002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=291002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291002\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=291002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=291002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=291002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}