2 police wounded in shooting on French island of Reunion

PARIS – A man suspected of links to radical Islam and of glorifying terrorism shot two police officers on the French island of Reunion during an arrest Thursday, officials said.

Police managed to detain the man and his mother, and found weapons and material for making explosives in their apartment in the town of Saint Benoit de la Reunion, according to the Interior Ministry.

The two officers, from a special national police intervention force, were hospitalized with light injuries. The man was wanted for “glorifying terrorism,” the ministry said in a statement, without elaborating.

Antiterrorism prosecutors have taken over the investigation because the man was suspected of links to radical Islam, Paris prosecutor’s office spokeswoman Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre told The Associated Press.

The man appeared to be acting alone, according to a local Reunion official who was not authorized to be publicly named.

The shooting came a week after a police officer was killed in Paris in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group that shook up France’s presidential election campaign.

France is under a state of emergency after multiple Islamic extremist attacks. Extremists have notably targeted French security forces, seen as representing the reviled state.

One of France’s biggest overseas territories and located east of Madagascar, Reunion is an ethnically diverse island with a mix of religions at the crossroads of historic sea trading routes between Africa, Asia and the Arab world.

French presidential candidates Emmanuel Macron, an independent centrist, and far-right leader Marine Le Pen have both visited the island during the campaign. They meet in a tense runoff election May 7.

Top Stories

Top Stories

Most Watched Today