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| Paris police killings: Investigation handed to anti-terror prosecutor | |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| Anti-terror investigators have taken over the inquiry into the killing of four police employees by a colleague in Paris on Thursday. | |
| A 45-year-old IT specialist killed three police officers and an administrative worker in a knife rampage at Paris police headquarters. | A 45-year-old IT specialist killed three police officers and an administrative worker in a knife rampage at Paris police headquarters. |
| A motive is unclear, with a police union initially suggesting a workplace dispute was to blame. | A motive is unclear, with a police union initially suggesting a workplace dispute was to blame. |
| But investigators say new information justifies a terror probe. | |
| The attacker, Mickaël Harpon, was shot dead by a junior police officer after he attacked colleagues in several offices at the central police building in Paris. | The attacker, Mickaël Harpon, was shot dead by a junior police officer after he attacked colleagues in several offices at the central police building in Paris. |
| He converted to Islam 18 months ago, according to reports, and had recently stopped talking to female colleagues in the office. But a government spokeswoman said on Friday morning that there was no indication he had been radicalised before the attack. | He converted to Islam 18 months ago, according to reports, and had recently stopped talking to female colleagues in the office. But a government spokeswoman said on Friday morning that there was no indication he had been radicalised before the attack. |
| What do we know about the motive? | |
| Police investigators say it remains unclear - and until now, the case had been handled by the city's public prosecutor. | |
| But this changed on Friday evening when an official from the Paris prosecutor's office said that national anti-terror prosecutors had taken over the investigation "in the light of the evidence gathered by criminal investigators". | |
| Details of the new information uncovered was not revealed. | |
| Police earlier seized computer equipment during a search of Harpon's home in the north of the city, according to media reports. | |
| Also on Friday, the killer's wife was reported as having told police that he had been incoherent and had heard voices the night before the attack. | |
| The woman, who has not been charged, told police he had had a disagreement with his bosses. | |
| Police union officials also described tensions between Harpon and his supervisor. | |
| What happened? | |
| The employee entered the building around lunchtime on Thursday, and proceeded to attack his colleagues with a kitchen knife. | |
| He stabbed three people inside two offices and two women on a stairway, before he was shot dead by an officer inside the building's courtyard. | |
| Three men and one woman were killed. A fifth person was seriously injured. | |
| The police building is near major tourist sites including Notre-Dame cathedral. | |
| Earlier on Friday, a minute's silence was held outside the headquarters in memory of the four staff who died. | |
| Police shared a photo of the gathering on Twitter, calling it a "moment of contemplation" that was "deeply moving". |