Footage emerges of France Airport attack

Footage has emerged of a 39-year-old man putting a gun to a soldier’s head in Paris’ Orly Airport, before being shot dead by security.

Per BBC, French anti-terror prosecutors are investigating the attack, after the gunman apparently claimed he wanted to “die for Allah”.

Reports say the man, Ziyed Ben Belgacem, has radicalised in prison and was on a police watch-list. Earlier in the day prior to the airport attack, he was involved in both a shooting and carjacking incidents.

The BBC said the man’s image, being built by authorities, is one of a man on the criminal fringes of society, who also had ties to Islamist radicals.

No-one else in the busy terminal was hurt, per reports from ABC, but around 3000 of travellers were evacuated and flights were diverted to the city’s other airport, Charles de Gaulle.

People on 13 flights that landed around the time the incident occurred were forced to stay on planes for several hours, while traffic surrounding the airport descended into chaos, leaving people wheeling their luggage down the roads.

It comes at a shaky time for France, with the country still under a state of emergency, following a number of terror attacks in the country. Attacks over the past two years in France have resulted in the deaths of 235 people.

In July last year, Bastille Day revellers were attacked in Nice as a truck plowed into crowds, killing over 77.

Earlier in February this year, Compare Travel Insurance looked at the possibility of travellers halting holiday plans on account of terrorism, offering tips for safe travels.

Per BBC, early on Saturday morning, Belgacem was stopped at a checkpoint north of Paris, where he fired at police with a pellet gun before escaping in a car that was later found abandoned.

Police say he then stole a car at gunpoint from a woman south of Paris. That car was later found at Orly airport, where Belgacem attacked military patrol in the south terminal, tried to take a servicewoman’s automatic weapon, put a gun to her head and claimed, “I’m here to die for Allah. In any case people are going to die.”

He was then shot dead by two other soldiers. Per BBC, a copy of the Koran was found on his body.

Orly Airport is the capital’s second largest airport, and is located 13km south of Paris.

Image: CNN

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france orly airport paris terror attack