Man killed at Paris airport after attempt to grab soldier’s gun

Soldiers at Orly Airport in Paris shot and killed a man who wrestled one of their female colleagues to the ground and tried to take her rifle Saturday, officials said. Thousands of travelers were evacuated and at least 15 flights were diverted to the city’s other airport, Charles de Gaulle. No one else was hurt. Police did not immediately provide a motive or identify the attacker, though the Paris prosecutor’s office said the man was 39 and had a record of robbery and drug offenses. The office also reported he did not appear in a French government database of people considered potential threats to national security. Earlier Saturday, the man fired birdshot at officers during a traffic stop in a Paris suburb, wounding one in the face. Then, Paris police said, he stole a woman’s car at gunpoint. It was found near Orly. The prosecutor’s office said its anti-terrorism division was handling the investigation and had taken the attacker’s father and brother into custody for questioning.

UPDATE (1:45 p.m.): A French official connected to the investigation confirmed French media reports that identified the attacker as Ziyed Ben Belgacem, born in France in 1978. The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the official wasn’t authorized to publicly discuss the man’s details. Prosecutors noted that the attacker previously had been suspected of having Islamic terrorism ties. His house was among those searched in November 2015 in the immediate aftermath of suicide bomb-and-gun attacks that killed 130 people in Paris.

UPDATE (7 p.m.): Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said Ziyed Ben Belgacem used the female soldier as a shield during the attack, holding a pistol to her head. According to soldiers, the Belgacem yelled, “Put down your weapons! Put your hands on your head! I am here to die for Allah. Whatever happens, there will be deaths,” Molins said. Belgacem managed to wrest free the captive soldier’s Famas assault rifle and sling it over his shoulder. “Everything suggests that he wanted to take the Famas so there would be deaths and to shoot people,” Molins said, adding that in between the moments when he ducked behind his hostage, the two other soldiers fired three bursts, eight rounds in all, that killed the Belgacem.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.