A French soldier was stabbed by a robed assailant while he was on an antiterrorism patrol in a busy commercial district on the western outskirts of Paris. The 23-year-old soldier lost a lot of blood but he was quickly taken to the hospital and his wounds are not life-threatening. Still, the attack “sent a shudder through the French capital” considering it comes mere days after the brutal killing of a soldier in London, points out the Washington Post.
The attacker in France was wearing a Muslim prayer cap and a robe called a jellabah common in North Africa. Security cameras reveal the attacker shed his robe after the attack and disappeared into a crowd. The soldier was patrolling in uniform with two other men and was stabbed either with a knife or a box-cutter, notes Reuters. “We still don’t know the exact circumstances of the attack or the identity of the attacker, but we are exploring all options,” President Francois Hollande told journalists.
