French police official, partner killed by IS-linked man

A police official and his partner were stabbed to death in a Paris suburb by a man who claimed allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) group, the media reported.

The police couple was killed at their home. An IS-linked news agency report said the attack was carried out at Magnanville on Monday night by an "Islamic State fighter", Xinhua news agency reported.

Their three-year-old son was put under medical attention after surviving the bloodshed unharmed.

The male police official, 42, was assaulted outside his home, while his girlfriend was attacked when he went inside to hide, Le Figaro reported, adding he was then in civilian clothes.

The newspaper cited interior ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet as saying the killer, Larossi Abballa, later hid in the official's house.

Elite RAID police went to the scene about an hour later. The attacker was killed around midnight by security forces who stormed the house after failed negotiations.

Abballa was arrested in 2011 and sentenced to three years in jail in 2013 for helping extremist militants to go to Pakistan, French radio RMC-Info reported, citing a police source.

He was also known to law courts for acts of delinquency, the media reports said.

French President Francois Hollande on Tuesday called the killing an "incontestably terrorist act".

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve also said earlier Tuesday that the killing was "an abject terrorist act".

France has raised its terror alert after twin suicide bombings and shootings killed 130 people on November 13, 2015.

The incident came after a gunman claiming to act in the name of the IS killed 49 people in a Sunday shooting at a gay nightclub in the US city of Orlando.

--IANS

py/vt