Muslim Man Attacks French Soldier With Knife in the Center of Paris

According to information from local media sources, citing the police services, the assailant, quickly detained by the soldier, was shouting remarks referring to Allah.

The encounter occurred on Friday around 6:30 a.m. local time, according to the prefecture police. No one was hurt.

French government spokesman Christophe Castaner told reporters in relation to the incident that the counter-terrorism unit of the Paris prosecutor's office had opened an inquiry into the attack.

"Since this morning the president of the republic [Emmanuel Macron] mobilized a group of specialists to look into this incident. The counter-terror unit of the Paris prosecutor's office launched an investigation," Castaner said.

The Sentinelle is a French military operation designed to deploy additional police and gendarmerie forces in the country after the January 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris. The purpose of the operation is to protect the country's sensitive facilities from terrorism.

Emmanuel Macron announced on July 13 that Sentinelle operation would be "reviewed in depth" in order to increase its "effectiveness" and adapt to "the evolution of the threat".

The operation has been widely criticized, some consider it ineffective, or even a target of Islamist attacks, but reassuring for the population according to others.

Recently a man, shouting "Allahu Akbar", attacked pedestrians in the southern French city of Toulouse, injuring at least seven people.

The terror threat level is currently elevated in France, which has seen a number of terrorist attacks over recent months. On August 9, a ramming attack on soldiers took place in the Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret.