Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/833901
2 A man was shot by police out- side the Notre-Dame cathe- dral in Paris after he attacked an officer with a hammer yes- terday afternoon. The suspect was wounded in the chest while the officer has minor injuries, the media report. Officials say this is a "terrorist incident". Tourists f led for cover as the attack occurred. Hundreds of people were at the cathedral at the time. France is in a state of emer- gency since attacks by jihad- ists in Paris in 2015. The suspect was shot by an officer after he attacked another policeman, media reports say. Anti-terrorist prosecutors have opened an investigation. The man attempted to as- sault the officer as he pa- trolled on the esplanade in front of the cathedral in the French capital, said Cedric Michel, a police union offi- cial. Plainclothes police officers, doctors and paramedics sur- rounded the suspected at- tacker, who was taken to hos- pital after being shot in the legs. Yves Lefebvre, a police spokesman, said: "The man approached a police officer, took a hammer from his back- pack and hit the police officer over the head. His colleague saw what happened and shot him [the attacker]. I under- stand the police officer who was attacked is slightly hurt." Police asked people to stay away from the area, which was evacuated. Large num- bers of police cars surrounded the cathedral on the Île de la Cité island on the river Seine in the centre of Paris. The French prosecutor's of- fice said the counter-terror- ism office had launched an in- vestigation into the incident. Police said the area would remain sealed until they were confident there was no fur- ther danger. Forty minutes after the in- cident, the Paris prefecture of police tweeted: "Situation under control. One police of- ficer injured. The attacker has been neutralised and taken to hospital." In April, an attack- er opened fire on a police van on the Champs Élysées, kill- ing one and gravely wounding two others. The assailant was shot dead by police. The incident recalled two recent attacks on soldiers providing security at promi- nent locations around Paris, one at the Louvre museum in February and one at Orly air- port in March. maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 7 JUNE 2017 News Attacker shot outside Notre Dame in Paris Armed security forces cordoned off the area around the cathedral MATTHEW AGIUS LESS than a day after being elected for a second term in a snap poll that saw Labour take an unprecedented 55% of the popular vote, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has visited the Betsson offices in Ta' Xbiex for a meeting with the compa- ny's CEO and president, Ulrik Bengtsson. The visit was intended to quash rumours, in part ad- vanced by Opposition leader Simon Busuttil during a tel- evised debate, that the gaming giant was planning to leave the island, rumours which the company was quick to deny. Bengtsson told reporters yesterday that the company had no intention of relocating from Malta. An internal email to workers even suggested that they were not to believe every- thing they read or heard… at least not before they asked one of their managers. "Please don't believe every- thing you read or hear. You can always ask your manag- er…" the email read. But during the debate, Bu- suttil had an anonymous SMS text message printed out in large font, which he read out, claiming that a large gaming firm – which in the original SMS referred to Betsson – would leave the island if La- bour were re-elected. Accompanied by Malta Gaming Authority chairman Joe Cuschieri, Muscat had a private chat with Bengtsson. In a tweet, Muscat said the CEO had publicly confirmed Betsson's commitment to Malta Muscat announced that two leading names in the gaming industry have applied for a li- cence to operate in Malta. The Prime Minister said he could not reveal the names of the companies however, due to a non-disclosure agreement. The two companies would be in addition to Skybet, which applied for a gaming licence in Malta last week. Taking questions from re- porters after the meeting, the Prime Minister also said he would be "making an an- nouncement very soon" about who his chief of staff would be. The 2017 election took place amid allegations levelled against chief of staff Keith Schembri, who was impli- cated in the Panama Papers, and was the subject of various FIAU investigations request- ing the police to look into accusations of money laun- dering through the use of off- shore companies. Prime Minister Joseph Muscat tours Swedish gaming giant offices on being returned to office Betsson told workers election rumour that it would leave Malta was untrue