Paris knife attacker's 'friend' detained

A friend of a 21-year-old man who attacked passersby with a knife in a central Paris neighborhood was detained in the eastern French city of Strasbourg on Sunday, French authorities said.

The attacker, Khamzat A., who was shot dead by police, killed one person and wounded four others in the attack in Paris' Opera district on Saturday.

Police have also detained Khamzat A.'s parents in the northern 18th district of Paris.

Both parties were still being questioned by police on Monday, a judicial official said.

Khamzat A., was a French citizen of Chechen origin and did not have an arrest record but had been on a counterterrorism watch list for potential radicalism, said French government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux.

Read more: Salah Abdeslam found guilty for 2015 attacks

A claim of responsibility from the jihadist militia Islamic State had not been authenticated, said Griveaux.

BFM television said the attacker had long lived in Strasbourg before moving to Paris last year.

French President Emmanuel Macron praised police for "neutralizing the terrorist"

"We heard gun fire, two gun shots," said waitress Sarah Gousse.

"It was scary," said Emma Klibbe, an Australia who was waiting to enter a nearby restaurant. She said she saw a man walk by who had been injured in the attack.

The deadliest attacks to hit France over the past three years occurred in Paris in November 2015, when 130 people were killed during a concert.

ipj/rc (AP, Reuters, dpa)