PARIS, September 26. /TASS/. French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told the France 2 TV channel that the knife attack on two journalists near Charlie Hebdo’s former offices in Paris on Friday was an act of terror.
"This was evidently a terror attack," he said. "It happened in the street where Charlie Hebdo’s office used to be. They behaved the way terrorists do. Undoubtedly, this is a new bloody attack against our country, against journalists."
The minister added that the terrorists "are seeking to destroy the French identity."
At 11:45 local time (12:45 Moscow time), two journalists of the Premiere Ligne media production company were stabbed with a machete when they went out to smoke. An 18-year-old man of Pakistani descent and his possible accomplice, presumably a of Algerian origin, were detained. According to the BFM TV channel, one of them has already pleaded guilty.
Later, it became known that five more people were detained in connection with the attack. The five men, born between 1983 and 1996, were detained in an apartment in a northern suburb of Paris, where the main suspect lived.
The incident occurred at two streets adjacent to the building which was previously used as the Charlie Hebdo office that came to be tragically known to the word after a terrorist attack in January 2015. The 2015 attack claimed the lives of 12 people. Among them were two police officers, deployed in the building after the satirical magazine started to receive numerous threats. After the incident, Charlie Hebdo moved to another office. Its location is kept secret and the building is guarded by over 80 police officers.