Soldier opens fire outside Louvre, Paris police say
Posted February 3, 2017 5:19 am.
Last Updated February 3, 2017 5:34 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Paris police say a soldier opened fire outside the Louvre Museum after he was attacked by someone who was armed with a machete.
Initial media reports say that the attacker tried to enter the museum with a suitcase.
According to tweets from the interior ministry, the the soldier fired five bullets, seriously wounding the attacker to the stomach. The attacker allegedly had uttered threats and the soldier “opened fire to defend himself against the aggression.”
There were 250 people inside the museum at the time, the ministry tweeted. The ministry tweeted that the visitors were kept remote in parts of the secured museum and that they were being removed from “in small groups after the necessary checks.”
A second person was later arrested, the ministry tweeted. Further details weren’t available.
The museum in the centre of Paris is one of the French capital’s biggest tourist attractions.
Soldiers on patrol are part of security measures that have beefed-up in the wake of terror attacks in France in 2015 and 2016.
