France: Airport Attacker Was A "Radicalized Muslim," Authorities Say

Authorities have identified the attacker who tried to take a soldier's weapon at the Orly airport in Paris on March 18 as a 39-year-old male with a criminal record they said was a radicalized Muslim, the prosecutor's office said, Fox News reported. They have yet to disclose his name. A terrorism investigation has been opened. About 90 minutes before the attack, the same man had fired birdshot at police officers in a Paris suburb before stealing a car. He was not on a terror watchlist. Earlier March 18, the man attacked three soldiers patrolling the airport as part of the Sentinel special force and tried to take a rifle from one of them. The other two fired on the attacker and killed him. Sentinel personnel have been in place at key sites across France since the January 2015 Charlie Hebdo attacks. The attack comes five weeks before a critical French election in which questions of national security and migration have come to the forefront.