Notre-Dame attack: Video shows police shooting Isis supporter who worked as freelance journalist

Police find video claiming attack was carried out for Isis at Algerian student's home

Footage has emerged showing the moment an Isis supporter wielding a hammer attempted to murder a French police officer outside Notre-Dame cathedral.

It shows tourists milling around the famous landmark before the assailant launches himself at a group of police, knocking one officer to the ground and attempting to hit him in the head.

He was shot within seconds by the injured officer’s colleagues, as thousands of people were ordered to evacuate the square and held inside Notre-Dame for their safety.

The assailant has been identified as Farid Ikken, an Algerian journalist who was studying for a doctorate in Paris.

(AP (AP)

The 40-year-old was registered as a freelance journalist in Sweden, where he reportedly married a local woman in 2005 and at Uppsala University, graduating in 2011.

Ikken listed himself as a specialist in “development, democracy and human rights”, with a number of his university papers remaining online.

One of his articles, entitled “War on Terror: 7 Dark Years for Human Rights”, was published by the Swedish United Nations Association, a non-profit group not officially affiliated with the UN, and focused on the treatment of alleged jihadi militants at Guantanamo Bay.

Another article, on discrimination against migrants and asylum seekers in the Swedish medical system, reportedly resulted in Ikken being given a prize by the Swedish branch of the European Commission.

He underwent an unpaid internship at public broadcaster Sveriges Radio and wrote for magazines and daily newspapers before travelling to Algeria in 2013, and then moving to Paris to continuing his studies.

Journalist and former colleague Kamal Ouhnia said Ikken had attempted to return to Algeria after splitting from his wife but was unable to.

He described him as unhappy but believed him to be “completely secular”.

(EPA (EPA)

Sofiane Ikken, his nephew, said his uncle expressed complete disdain for Isis as recently as last summer but seemed “a little bit alone” when he last phoned three weeks ago to get family news.

The lawyers said Ikken's friends and family cannot believe that he is suspected in the attack, adding: “It's not the person we knew.”

French prosecutors have opened a terror investigation into Tuesday’s attack, while Ikken remains in custody in hospital, where he is being treated for gunshot wounds.

Witnesses said he shouted “This is for Syria!” as he launched the attack, while police searching his student flat discovered a video claiming responsibility for the attack in the name of Isis.

The University of Lorraine's president, Pierre Mutzenhardt, told France Bleu radio that Ikken had been working on a thesis about North African media since 2014.

“There'd been no difficulties with him. Nothing strange had been detected,” he added.

Ikken’s thesis director, Arnaud Mercier, told BFMTV that he spoke Swedish, Arabic and French and that his CV mentioned that he had worked as a journalist in both Sweden and Algeria.

“He was someone who believed a lot in democratic ideals, the expression of free thinking, in journalism,” Mr Mercier.

“Nothing, absolutely nothing, foretold that one day he'd be a jihadi who'd want to kill a policeman in the name of I don't know what cause.”

French officials said he was not on a list of suspected extremists drawn up by security services given increased powers by the country’s ongoing state of emergency.

Isis did not claim responsibility for Ikken’s attack, which followed atrocities that have killed around 240 people in France since the start of 2015.

Soldiers patrolling its streets alongside police to protect tourist sites, government buildings and events have been the target of attempted attacks, including at Paris-Orly airport and outside Le Louvre.

Several terror plots have been disrupted in recent months, seeing the arrest of three women after police found a car laden with gas cylinders was abandoned near Notre-Dame cathedral for what authorities described as an “imminent” attack.

Isis has called for supporters around the world to carry out intensified terror attacks during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, as it seeks to maintain momentum while losing territory in Syria and Iraq.

Additional reporting by agencies