Paris attacker admits via “Twitter”

The French counterterrorism prosecutor, Jean-Francois Ricard, said on Saturday that the 18-year-old who beheaded a history teacher in front of his school spoke to his students in the street and asked them to identify his victim. Police shot dead the Moscow-born attacker after he was shot dead by history teacher Samuel Patty, 47, in broad daylight in the Conflans-Saint-Honorine suburb on Friday.

Reuters quoted Ricard as saying that a picture of the teacher’s body, which the attacker posted on Twitter, was found attached to a message admitting to his death on a phone next to his body after police killed him. He added that the account belonged to the attacker. Twitter quickly deleted the post and said it closed the account for violating company policy. According to Reuters.

Ricard said during a press conference that the attacker, who was of Chechen origin, was living in the town of Evers, northwest of Paris, and was not known by the intelligence services.

The prosecutor confirmed that the police were holding nine people in connection with the attack. The murder shocked the country and brought to mind the attack on the headquarters of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo five years ago.

Police sources said that four relatives of the attacker, including a minor, were arrested in the hours following the attack. Police also arrested five others during the night, including two parents of students at the College de Bois de Lone school, which the teacher was working on.