PARIS — The Louvre Museum reopened to the public Saturday, less than 24 hours after a machete-wielding assailant shouting “Allahu akbar!” attacked French soldiers guarding the sprawling building and was shot by them.
International tourists filed by armed police and soldiers patrolling outside .
The attacker was shot four times after slightly injuring a soldier patrolling the nearby underground mall, but his injuries on Saturday were no longer life-threatening, the Paris prosecutor's office said.
French President Francois Hollande said there is “no doubt” the suspect's actions were a terror attack, and he will be questioned as soon as possible.
An Egyptian Interior Ministry official confirmed that the attacker is Egyptian-born Abdullah Reda Refaie al-Hamahmy, who is 28, not 29 as widely reported.
The official said an initial investigation in Egypt found no record of political activism, criminal activity or membership in any militant group by him. The official spoke on condition of anonymity.
French authorities said they are not ready to name the suspect.
The suspect was believed to have been living in the United Arab Emirates and came to Paris on Jan. 26 on a tourist visa, prosecutor Francois Molins said. The suspect bought two military machetes at a gun store in Paris and paid $1,834 for a one-week stay at a Paris apartment.
On the Twitter account of an “Abdallah El-Hamahmy,” a tweet was posted about a trip from Dubai to Paris on Jan. 26. In the profile photo, Hamahmy is seen smiling and leaning against a wall in a blue-and-white sports jacket.
In another tweet in Arabic written shortly before the Louvre attack, Hamahmy posted an angry tirade: “No negotiation, no compromise, no letting up, certainly no climb down, relentless war.”
In an interview Saturday on the Dubai-based news channel al-Hadath, Hamahmy's father, Reda Refae al-Hamahmy, said he was shocked to learn of his son's alleged involvement in the latest Paris attack and denied that he was a radical or belonged to any militant groups.
Hamahmy's brother Ahmed, who works at the Health Ministry in Dubai, was interrogated for several hours by security officials in the United Arab Emirates, the father said. In Egypt, several domestic security agency officers visited the family home in the Nile Delta on Friday night to question family members.
