Paris attacker 'shouting Allahu akbar' shot dead by police after stabbing victims in street

Police have shot a man who launched a knife attack in Paris dead after he killed a 29-year-old man and injured four others.

Isis claimed responsibility for the atrocity in a statement that described the culprit as one of its “soldiers”.

Official sources said the attacker was a French citizen born in the Chechnya region of Russia in 1997.

A witness told The Independent the assailant was shouting “Allahu akbar” and trying to get into restaurants as diners barricaded the doors.

“First we thought it was two guys fighting,” said Fiona, who was having dinner in Kintaro restaurant and did not want her second name published.

“People that were queueing outside ran into the restaurant screaming, so everyone panicked and threw themselves on the floor.”

Fiona said the same man came back with the knife minutes later and was “screaming Allahu akbar”.

“Some guys, including my friend, blocked the door in case he would try to enter,” she added.

“When we ran away they were still looking for the guy, and one woman was lying down on the floor. Her neck was bleeding.”

The attack took place on Rue Saint-Augustin, which is famed for its many restaurants, and in the adjoining Rue Monsigny where the culprit was shot.

Witnesses described panic and screams after seeing a “guy with a knife in the streets”.

Videos posted on social media showed people running from the scene, which was cordoned off by security forces.

A man who lives in the street said he saw a “body and a man with his hands covered in blood”.

Yvan Assioma, the regional secretary of the Police Alliance, said officers who arrived first on the scene were threatened by a “bearded individual”.

He said an officer used his taser on the attacker before he was shot by his colleague.

The multiple stabbings took place at around 9pm local time (8pm BST) in the opera district of the French capital.

Francois Molins, the Paris prosecutor, said the attack was being investigated as terrorism.

He described the victim killed as a “passer-by” and said the four others wounded had also been stabbed.

“At this stage, and on the basis of testimonies describing the attacker shouting ‘Allahu akbar’ while attacking passers-by with a knife, as well as the modus operandi, the counter-terror section of the Paris prosecutor’s office is investigating.”

On Sunday, French interior minister Gerard Collomb said the four injured were out of danger and that authorities were working to establish whether anyone might have helped the assailant to plan the attack.

Authorities have not named the attacker but officials say he has been identified thanks to DNA tests.

Facebook activated its “safety check” feature for users living in Paris, while a psychological clinic for traumatised witnesses was set up in a nearby hotel.

Emmanuel Macron said France had “paid once again the price of blood but will not cede an inch to the enemies of freedom”.

His predecessor, Francois Hollande, said it was an attack “on those who were celebrating life”, adding: “United, we must not give in to barbarity.”

Mr Collomb also praised the “sangfroid and quick reaction of police officers who neutralised the assailant”. “The victims of this despicable act are first in my thoughts,” he added, ahead of a planned visit to those wounded in hospital.

Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, said all Parisiens were at the side of the victims and their loved ones.

“Tonight our city was bruised,” she wrote on Twitter. ”I want to salute the police, whose composure, courage and professionalism have once again saved lives. They have my gratitude. I would also like to thank the emergency services that went very quickly to take care of the wounded.”

The chief of Paris police, Michel Delpuech, has spoken to the officers involved in the incident in the second arrondissement and assured the victims and their families of his support.

A statement released through Isis’s propaganda agency described the attacker as a “soldier of the Islamic State” and claimed the atrocity was in response to its calls to target countries bombing its territories in Syria and Iraq.

The atrocity came after a series of similar attacks claimed by Isis in France and around the world.

Paris was the site of the deadliest Isis attack in Europe on 13 November 2015 when attackers armed with guns and suicide vests targeted the Bataclan concert hall, Stade de France and restaurants, killing 130 people.

The terrorist group intensified calls for supporters to launch attacks in their home countries when it became harder to reach the ever-shrinking territory militants seized in 2014.

It has used propaganda magazines, websites, social media channels and Telegram to distribute advice about carrying out massacres using knives, vehicles, guns and bombs.