The attacker had been armed with a knife, an airgun and five canisters. He had fired shots at police and tried to stab them as they closed in on him. He was in turn shot nine times. Locals in the Normandy town of Evreux where the attacker lived in the Madeleine district described him as low key.
Demonstrations are being held in dozens of cities across france in a show of solidarity and defiance after the decapitation of a teacher outside his school on Friday for showing pupils cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in a lesson on freedom of speech.
The beheading of history teacher Samuel Paty in a Paris suburb on Friday has sparked outrage in france and memories of a wave of Islamist violence in 2015 sparked by caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed published by the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
A large gathering is taking place in the Place de la République in Paris, attended by members of the government, including Blanquer, Prime Minister, Jean Castex, and the Minister Delegate for Citizenship, Marlène Schiappa.
Politicians from across the political spectrum are present at the gathering at Place de la République including Stanislas Guerini (The Republic en Marche), Jean-Luc Mélenchon (La France Insoumise), Olivier Faure (Socialist Party), Julien Bayou (Europe Ecologie-Les Verts) and the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo.
Rallies are also expected in Lyon, Toulouse, Strasbourg, Nantes, Marseille, Lille and Bordeaux.
Meanwhile the…
