LA CHAPELLE-SUR-ERDRE, France — A suspect in a knife attack on a policewoman in France died on Friday after a shootout with police during his arrest, sources close to the case said.
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The man, who had been on the run after the attack in La Chapelle-sur-Erdre near the northwestern city of Nantes, was "radicalized and suffering from a very serious psychiatric illness", one source said.
The BFMTV station said that the man took the policewoman's
service weapon before fleeing. A source close to the investigation said that
her injuries were life-threatening.
Three French gendarmes were wounded -- in the hand and in
the arm -- in the operation that resulted in the arrest of the suspect,
authorities said.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin was on his way to the
scene, his ministry said. He said on Twitter that the individual arrested was
suspected of carrying out the attack.
Pupils in the area's primary and middle schools were kept
indoors, a city official told AFP.
La Chapelle-sur-Erdre is a small town of 20,000 inhabitants
just north of Nantes near the French Atlantic coast.
The attack came on the same day that Justice Minister Eric
Dupond-Moretti called on French judges to show "firmness" when
dealing with people found guilty of attacks on police forces.
All such cases of violence should go before a criminal
court, he said in a memo to investigating magistrates seen by AFP.
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