The man who tried to attack police officers on Friday with a knife and an ax in the center of Tunis is considered a "
takfirist
" (extremist Islamist, editor's note) by the Tunisian authorities, the Tunisian interior ministry said.
Read also Attempted stabbing attack against police officers in Tunis
Aged 31, the assailant shouted "
O taghout (tyrants), O Koffar (disbelievers)
" at the address of the police officers as well as "
Allah Akbar (God is the greatest)
" on the avenue Habib Bourguiba in center of the Tunisian capital, said the ministry in a statement released on the night of Friday to Saturday.
"
It is classified by the services of the Ministry (of the Interior) as takfirist
", according to the first elements of an investigation opened by the National Unit for Research into Terrorist Crimes, according to the press release.
"
He had a knife in one hand and an ax in the other and he was running towards the entrance to the (Interior) Ministry shouting Allah Akbar,
" said a policeman who was there on Friday.
A video, filmed by witnesses, shows a bearded man running towards the entrance of the ministry and panicked passers-by asking the police to shoot him.
The man was immobilized by police rubber bullets before being taken to hospital.
Over the past ten years, Tunisia has been shaken by several bloody extremist attacks that have targeted the police and tourists in particular.
