Top suspect in knife attack arrested near former 'Charlie Hebdo' headquarters

Two people have been injured this Friday in Paris in a knife attack perpetrated in the vicinity of the former headquarters of the satirical magazine

, where a jihadist attack was committed five years ago for which a trial is currently being held in the French capital .

Two individuals, one of them the main author of the attack, have been arrested for an attack that is currently being investigated as a terrorist act.

The anti-terrorist Prosecutor's Office has opened an investigation for "attempted murder in relation to a terrorist act" and for "criminal terrorist association" for the attack committed around 11:45 in the morning in the 11th district of the French capital, the prosecutor has confirmed anti-terrorist, Jean-François Ricard, after traveling to the scene.

As he explained, the reason that this act, which for the moment has not been claimed by any terrorist group, is being investigated as such is due both to the "place" chosen - the former headquarters of the satirical magazine, where eight of its members—, as the “moment” in which it occurred, in full trial for the January 2015 attacks that left a total of 17 dead.

A third reason, Ricard added, is "the manifest will of the author to attempt against the lives of two people."

The prosecutor also confirmed the arrest of two people, one of them is the "main author" of the attack, he said without giving further details.

According to the BFMTV network, this is an 18-year-old man known to the police for committing common crimes and for possessing a weapon, although it was not suspected that he could be radicalized.

Several media assure that he is of Pakistani origin, although there is no official confirmation.

The second arrested, who is also in preventive detention, is a man who is being investigated for his link to the main suspect, Ricard said.

The Prime Minister, Jean Castex, the Interior Minister, Gérald Darmanin, and the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, have traveled to the scene of the events.

"This has happened in a symbolic place at a time when the process for the unworthy acts of

" said Castex, who announced that the two injured, workers of a news agency and production company based in the same building where the old

newsroom was

, they are no longer in danger.

"It is the occasion of the Government to remember its unwavering commitment to press freedom, its determined will to fight with all means against terrorism and to affirm our full mobilization," he added.

Regardless of whether the terrorist background of the attack is confirmed, it has caused a great commotion in a Paris that relives several of its darkest days with the trial for the attacks against

against a police officer and against a Jewish supermarket in early 2015 In fact, the two victims of this Friday's attack work at the production company Premières Lignes, which already witnessed the attack on the neighboring headquarters of the satirical magazine five years ago.

"This has sparked fear and trauma," said Elise Lucet, editor-in-chief and host of the

television program

produced by Premières Lignes on Franceinfo station.

The journalist confirmed that the injured are a man and a woman employees of the production company.

“Two colleagues smoked a cigarette in front of the building, on the street.

I heard some screams.

I went out to the window and saw one of my colleagues stained with blood who was being chased down the street by a man with a machete, ”another Premières Lignes employee told Agence France Presse.

The police immediately sealed off the area, where several thousand schoolchildren were locked up for several hours in various surrounding schools before, in the middle of the afternoon, the police prefecture announced that their parents could now come and collect them, after securing the area.

The police immediately sealed off the area, where several thousand schoolchildren were locked up for several hours in various surrounding schools before, in the middle of the afternoon, the police prefecture announced that their parents could now pick them up, after securing the area.

New jihadist threats

The attack comes as the trial for the January 2015 attacks on

and a Jewish supermarket

is being held in the Paris court

.

In recent days, the satirical magazine has denounced new jihadist threats, especially after having republished the cartoons of Muhammad as a result of the beginning of the process, in early September.

This Wednesday, a hundred media published an "open letter to citizens", a plea for freedom of expression as everyone's task, in full trial for the terrible attacks that shocked the entire country and the international community.

“Today, in 2020, some of you are threatened with death on social media when you express unique opinions.

The media are openly targeted by international terrorist organizations.

The States exert pressure on French journalists 'guilty' of having published critical articles ”, they explained in the gallery entitled

The members of the magazine sent this Friday a message of support to their former neighbors and colleagues as soon as they learned of the attack.

"All of Charlie's team gives their support and solidarity to former neighbors and fellow @PLTVfilms and to those affected by this heinous attack," the post wrote on Twitter.

The perpetrators of the 2015 attacks, the brothers Chérif and Said Kouachi who perpetrated the

massacre

and their sidekick Amedy Coulibaly, who killed a police officer before storming the Jewish supermarket, are dead.

The 14 defendants in the "

trial

They are the so-called "second knives", 13 men and a woman, Hayat Boumeddiene, Coulibaly's partner, accused of participating in a criminal terrorist organization and for varying degrees of complicity, logistical, financial or material support.

They face penalties ranging from life imprisonment to 10 and 20 years in prison.

Only 11 of the defendants sit on the dock, as Boumeddiene and two other defendants, Mehdi and Mohammed Belhoucine, fled a few days before the attacks on the Syrian-Iraqi region.