PARIS (Reuters) - Police on Sunday scoured the background of a Chechnya-born Frenchman who killed a man in a knife attack in Paris, questioning the parents and a friend of the 21-year old, who had been flagged previously as a potential security risk. Late on Saturday, the assailant shouted "Allahu akbar" (God is greatest) as he began his stabbing rampage. He fatally knifed a 29-year-old man and wounded four others, among them a Chinese and a Luxembourg citizen, before police shot him dead. A judicial source named the attacker as Khamzat A, without giving his full name, which BFM TV and other French media said was Azimov. The attack took place in the bustling Opera district, known for its many restaurants, cafes and the Palais Garnier opera. It was the latest in a succession of attacks in France since January 2015 in which more than 240 people have died. The attacker had since 2016 been on a counter-terrorism watchlist of suspected radicals who may be a threat to national security, government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said. The stabbing exposed once again the difficulty European intelligence services face keeping track of suspected extremists and countering the threat posed by homegrown militants and foreign jihadists.
