French authorities have named a man arrested on suspicion of carrying out recent gun attacks in Paris as Abdelhakim Dekhar. He was taken into custody at about 18:00 GMT from a vehicle in a car park in Bois-Colombes, north-west of Paris.
Authorities said Dekhar had been jailed in 1998 for his role in a string of fatal shootings in Paris.
Last Friday a gunman threatened a Paris TV station and on Monday attacked a newspaper office and bank HQ.
Prosecutors said late on Wednesday that samples of Dekhar’s DNA matched that from the crime scenes.
They said he was not yet in a position to be questioned and the reading of his rights had been postponed.
Third man
Dekhar was arrested in a stationary car in an underground car park following a tip-off from a member of the public.
About Abdelhakim Dekhar:
- Former officer in the Algerian army
- Sentenced to four years in prison in 1998 for buying a gun used in a shooting attack by Florence Rey and Audry Maupin
- Witnesses at the trial described him as a mentor to the couple
- He denied involvement, claiming he had been recruited by the Algerian secret service to infiltrate the French far-left
- He was released soon after the trial and officials believe he went abroad for several years
French police arrested Paris gun suspect
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