Paris attacker wanted to set Charlie Hebdo offices on fire, prosecutor says

PARIS: A Pakistani man accused of wounding two people with a meat cleaver in front of the former offices of Charlie Hebdo last Friday did not know the satirical magazine had moved and wanted to set its offices on fire, the Paris prosecutor said. Prosecutor Jean-Francois Ricard told a news conference that the suspect carried three bottles of white spirit, a flammable paint thinner. He also said the man had operated under a false identity and that a photo of his passport on his phone showed that he was 25 years old, not 18 as he first said. “His initial plan was to enter into the office of the magazine, possibly with the help of a hammer, and then to set it on fire with the bottles of white spirit,” Ricard said.—News desk