Hospitalised Louvre attack suspect refuses to speak to investigators

A man who allegedly attacked a group of security agents outside the Louvre museum in Paris with two machetes refused to talk to investigators on Sunday, officials said.

His first interrogation took place at the Georges-Pompidou hospital in the French capital, where he was admitted on Friday after he was injured in the stomach after he lightly wounded a soldier, Efe news reported.

"For now he doesn't want to speak," the sources said.

French authorities believe the attacker to be a 29-year-old Egyptian national who arrived in France on January 26 on a tourist visa.

The suspect's state of health improved Saturday, so medical staff considered he was already in a position to testify.

The Paris Prosecutor's Office opened an investigation over the attack in order to determine, among other things, if the suspect acted alone, spontaneously, or under instructions from elsewhere.

Friday's attack took place at 08:50 GMT when a man approached a group of security agents near the glass pyramid at the centre of the Louvre's courtyard square and managed to lightly injure one soldier before being shot five times in the stomach.

--IANS

vgu/