Killer Filmed France Police Murders

The attacker has been named by French authorities as Larossi Abballa

A man who swore allegiance to Islamic State filmed the murder of a policeman and his wife and posted it on Facebook, officials have said.

Police say Larossi Abballa stabbed the 42-year-old policeman outside his home, and took his wife and the couple's three-year-old son hostage inside their home.

She was also killed, and their son was "in shock but unharmed", a prosecutor said. Abballa, 25, was killed during the police operation.

Police stormed the house after failed negotiations with the attacker

French officials said the attacker posted a video of the killings on Facebook Live, the social media site's live feed. His account has been suspended.

One official says that at one point during the attack, Abballa puzzled over what to do with the couple's 3-year-old child.

Police have made two arrests in connection with the killings. Both people are said to be "linked" to Abballa.

President Francois Hollande said: "This is incontestably a terrorist act.

"France is not the only country concerned as we have seen in the past days in the United States in Orlando, but we also saw it in Europe and in some other countries in the world, France is facing a terror threat of a very large scale."

Witnesses told investigators that Abballa, may have shouted "Allahu Akbar" as he launched the attack in the suburb of Magnanville.

Explosions were heard at the scene as heavily-armed police moved in following failed negotiations with the RAID elite police unit.

Abballa was jailed for three years in 2013, six months of which were suspended, for "criminal association with the aim of preparing terrorist attacks", in a trial with seven other defendants.

A Facebook profile bearing the name Larossi Abballa — which has now vanished from the internet — showed a photo of smiling, bearded man.

Two recent posts featured videos critical of Israel and Saudi Arabia.

"Some will say we see evil everywhere!" he said in a message posted about 18 hours before the attack.

In another video he moaned about people not being nice or smiling at him when he delivered food to them.

The Amaq News Agency, which is linked to IS, claimed the attack was carried out by an "Islamic State fighter".

A source told the AFP news agency: "The anti-terror department of the Paris prosecution service is taking into account at this stage the mode of operation, the target and the comments made during negotiations with the RAID."

French police are worried about future attacks.

"Today every police officer is a target," said police union chief Yves Lefebvre, adding that attackers are "professionalising" and can now find police in their homes.

France's interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve described the killing of the officer as "an appalling terrorist attack" and said more than 100 people seen as potential threats have been arrested in recent weeks.

The threat "is high in France, it's high in Europe, it's high in the Western world as shown by the events that happened 48 hours ago in the United States," Mr Cazeneuve added.

Senior government officials are meeting at the presidential palace to discuss the attack.

http://news.sky.com/story/1711521/killer-filmed-france-police-murders