Paris hunts down connections to ISIS attacker
Police took into custody the father and brother of a French gunman linked to a string of deadly Paris attacks.
Police took into custody Saturday the father and brother of a French gunman linked to a string of deadly Paris attacks and were searching their homes, a source close to the probe told AFP.
The body of the 29-year-old French national was found and identified at the Bataclan music hall where 89 people were shot dead Friday when three gunmen wearing suicide vests opened fire on spectators in the bloodiest of a string of attacks in Paris blamed on Islamists.
France’s worst ever attacks killed at least 129 people and left 352 injured, many in critical condition.
Investigators were also searching the homes of friends and relatives of the Frenchman, another source close to the enquiry said.
The father’s house is located in the small town of Romilly-sur-Seine, some 130 kilometres (80 miles) east of Paris, while his brother’s is south of Paris in the Essonne region.
The brother, who is 34, contacted the police on his own initiative and was then taken into custody.
The Frenchman confirmed as one of the attackers was known to police as being close to radical Islam but had never been linked to a terrorism enquiry, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said earlier Saturday.
He was identified via a severed fingertip.
Prosecutor Molins said seven gunmen were killed in the attacks, which were the work of three coordinated teams. Six of them blew themselves up while one was shot by police.
The attacks were claimed by extremist group ISIS, which France is targeting with airstrikes on Syria.
Seven “terrorists” were killed in attacks that caused the deaths of the 129 people in Paris and a Syrian passport was found on one of the assailants, the French capital’s prosecutor said Saturday.
Prosecutor Francois Molins said the attackers had worked in three teams, striking seven times in quick succession on Friday night. The prosecutor meanwhile said it was not clear to whom the passport belonged to.
Previously, the prosecutor said there could be eight gunmen killed across the capital, with more still at large behind seven attacks in Paris.
Al Arabiya News Channel’s correspondent initially reported that Syrian and Egyptian passports were found near the bodies of the assailants involved in a wave of deadly attacks on Paris.
French police so far reported that a Syrian passport was found but did not say where exactly it was found, although they indicated a possible Syrian connection was a working hypothesis for investigators.
Spectators invade the pitch of the Stade de France stadium after the international friendly soccer France against Germany, Friday, Nov. 13, 2015 in Saint Denis.
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