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An attack has occurred this morning when an individual carrying 2 backpacks and possibly weapons approached the Louvre in Paris and was engaged by a soldier who fired 5 shots. The assailant was wounded, as was a soldier during the attack. One report claims that the attacker shouted Islamic slogans during the attack.
1111GMT: A second possible assailant has been arrested. The French Govt have confirmed it is a terrorist attack.
1117GMT: It is confirmed that the first assailant attacked a soldier with a machete before being engaged and wounded.
1215GMT: Latest TV statements. The first assailant attacked a security officer and/or soldier with a machete causing wounds to his arm and face, while shouting "Allahu Akbar". A second soldier then engaged the assailant with rifle fire resulting in the assailant being seriously wounded in the stomach. The first assailant was carrying 2 backpacks but no explosives have been found in them. A search of the area is continuing. A second assailant has been arrested within the last hour a short distance away from the scene of the attack.
The Louvre Museum and the area around it is in lock-down, and the public and local workers are been evacuated from the area. The French Govt are releasing only statements that they can verify and are refusing to speculate any further during media questioning.
takyon: French soldier shoots attacker outside Louvre
Assailant Near Louvre Is Shot by French Soldier
Machete attack on soldier near Louvre was of 'terrorist nature'
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Thexalon on Friday February 03 2017, @01:24PM
So, if I'm reading this correctly, nobody died, the person who received the most injuries was the bad guy, and the soldier who was hurt will be fine when all is said and done. Which means that the fear of bad guys like this is much more of a threat than bad guys like this.
Lock this idiot and his accomplice up, get as much information as we can about who they might have been working with, patch up the soldier's wounds, go on with life.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Friday February 03 2017, @01:33PM
When you put it that way, this news doesn't really need to be here. A LEO receiving injuries from a lone knife wielder isn't notable, and any terrorist/ISIS affiliation is just "inspiration". There are plenty of criminals and crazies wielding knives or guns against cops, but they don't usually make international news unless they kill at least 2 or 3 cops.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Friday February 03 2017, @02:10PM
A backpack or two containing explosives, dirty bomb, or bio weapons may make things a little more interesting.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Fnord666 on Friday February 03 2017, @02:32PM
Except in this case nothing like that was involved. From the BBC coverage [bbc.com]:
(Score: 3, Funny) by number6x on Friday February 03 2017, @02:54PM
Maybe the attacker with the two rucksacks had prayed that they be filled with explosives when the attack started. Magical thinking.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by janrinok on Friday February 03 2017, @03:14PM
Which might be why the security forces have cleared the area of civilians, and are now doing a search just in case any explosives have been planted elsewhere. It's almost like they know what they are doing.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 03 2017, @02:14PM
But but he said the trigger phrase Allah Ackbar!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 04 2017, @02:34AM
But but he said the trigger phrase Allah Ackbar!
So... it was a trap?
(I see the good Admiral was promoted.)
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 03 2017, @02:19PM
This kind of news (and basically any terrorist attack/multiple murder ~10 dead) shouldn't automatically be mainstream news, but anything able to scare people into pageviews/buying papers is the right kind of newsworthy.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Friday February 03 2017, @03:54PM
I couldn't agree more, except that this is one of a series of attacks in France (Charlie Hebdo, Bataclan, Nice etc) which all affect the public perception of their own safety.
I feel it is newsworthy because we have all seen what over-reaction can do to such a threat, for example in the USA. The security theatre there has reached almost comedic proportions, we have immigrants being banned for entering the country because they 'might' be terrorists (or at least they might know someone who has a brother who bought a bicycle from a guy that possibly once lived near a terrorist)
The French Govt - for once - seem to be handling this calmly and sensibly. They are not making wild speculation, they are stressing that the injuries sustained by the soldiers are not serious, and they are taking reasonable precautions to ensure that nothing is overlooked.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 03 2017, @04:56PM
I have no problem with us discussing this story here.
My main point was that the fear narrative pushed by the mainstream news acts as in a positive feed-back loop. Scary stories that are overblown (over-representing risk) affect public perception and drive increased interest in future scary stories. The fear of terrorism is so strong that even minor incidents become Terrorist Attacks and evidence of an increasing threat that has to opposed by any means necessary, whatever the cost.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Friday February 03 2017, @06:21PM
It is interesting that you have said that.
This evening the news reporting is much more restrained. It is still considered a terrorist attack, but the French are certainly playing down the danger that it posed and see the outcome as justification of their current high-visibility security presence in the capital. Of course, they acknowledge that no measures can remove the risk of an attack entirely, but the reason that the attack in this case was foiled is because the soldiers stopped the assailant who was acting suspiciously and carrying 2 backpacks. The soldier who was injured he was telling him that he could not enter the museum with the backpacks when he drew the machete and began to attack the soldier.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 03 2017, @10:45PM
I'm glad that the French media are handling things better than the US media does.
Do you think the current amount of security is justified or would it be best to increase/decrease it?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 03 2017, @02:14PM
More like the fear of a good guy with a gun is overblown.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Thexalon on Friday February 03 2017, @02:39PM
There's something these good guys with guns had that many would-be good guys with guns don't have: training. Which makes a huge difference, because guys with training know what to shoot, when to shoot (and more importantly when not to), and how to shoot to hit their target rather than something else.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 04 2017, @09:51PM
I can't find hard numbers, but its a common claim on the net that cops in the US average very little firearms training. Like one trip to the shooting range each year.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday February 06 2017, @03:48PM
Which would be completely irrelevant in this case, because these were French soldiers, not American cops.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.