Five arrested following probe into Paris police HQ stabbing rampage

Five people have been arrested over the 3 October knife rampage where a civilian police employee stabbed four police to death in Paris.

Police and military personnel block the bridge near Paris Police headquarters after four officers were killed in a knife attack on 3 October. Source: ABACA

Five people have been arrested in the probe into the killing of four Paris police headquarters staff by a colleague, Radio France and other media reports.

The five were associates of the attacker, Radio France reported, citing a source close to the case.

Five people have been arrested following the killing of four Paris police headquarters staff by a colleague. Source: ABACA

The 3 October knife rampage by the 45-year-old civilian police employee, which ended when he was shot dead by a sentry in the headquarters courtyard, is provisionally being treated as an act of terrorism.

Authorities say the man, a convert to Islam, had contact with suspected members of the ultra-conservative Islamic Salafist movement and had expressed support for the deadly Islamist attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo to a colleague in 2015.

Police officers patrol outside the police headquarters in Paris, a day after the knife attack. Source: AP

The attacker's widow was arrested for questioning after the attack but was released without charge three days later.

France faced a wave of Islamist attacks, mostly claimed by the Islamic State extremist group, in 2015 and 2016, with more than 230 victims.

There have been several smaller attacks since then.