French police arrest suspect in stabbing of soldier

PARIS – France’s Interior Ministry says police have arrested a 22-year-old man in the stabbing of a French soldier while on patrol in a crowded commercial area outside Paris.

Wednesday morning’s arrest came in the town of Verriere outside Paris, the ministry said. The soldier was slashed in the throat by an assailant who came from behind as he was on group patrol in the crowded just outside Paris, where train lines converge on a busy shopping mall.

Saturday’s stabbing came days after a British soldier was killed on a London street in broad daylight in a suspected terrorist attack that has raised fears of potential copycat strikes. However, there was no immediate confirmation of any link between the two attacks, and the ministry drew no immediate links with radical Islam.