French authorities on Friday arrested an 18-year-old man over a double stabbing incident in Paris that injured two individuals.
In a report by Al Jazeera quoting Agence France-Presse (AFP), the 18-year-old suspect was said to be targeting satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad it published recently.
However, the people wounded were employees of TV production agency Premieres Lignes, whose offices were located in the same bloc that used to house Charlie Hebdo.
This was not the first time the Charlie Hebdo magazine received such a threat, as in January 2015, two brothers forced their way into the publication’s office, killed 12 people and injured 11 others.
According to a report, the suspect mistakenly believed that Charlie Hebdo’s offices were still in that building and wanted to attack journalists from the said paper.
Charlie Hebdo moved to a new office, which it has not identified due to security reasons.
The man was believed to have carried out the stabbings alone, but eight other people were under arrest while two more were detained on Saturday.
Two of the caught individuals were the suspect’s younger brother and another acquaintance. Five of the individuals arrested were in an apartment in Pantin, the last presumed address of the prime suspect.
Late on Friday, authorities released another man who was close to the scene but who was later confirmed to have been a witness who “chased the assailant,” according to a judicial source.
The attack on Friday came three weeks into a trial of suspected accomplices in the attack on Charlie Hebdo, a Jewish supermarket which claimed 17 lives, as well as on a policewoman.
The prime suspect was said to have arrived in France three years ago as an unaccompanied minor from Pakistan, but his identity was still being verified, according to French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin.
