French authorities have arrested a man suspected of stabbing a 22-year-old French soldier on May 25. The suspect, who was detained on Wednesday, carried out the attack just days after the killing of a British soldier in London by men shouting religious slogans. “He was known [to police] but we cannot speak of radical Islamism,” Manuel Valls, French interior minister, told iTele television. “I remain very cautious.” The suspect, known to police for crimes such as theft and possession of firearms, was arrested in a Paris suburb early on Wednesday after being identified through fingerprints, a police source told Reuters news agency. AFP news agency identified the site of arrest as Yvelines, just west of Paris. Cedric Cordiez was attacked from behind with a knife or box-cutter while patrolling the La Defense business neighbourhood, a busy underground shopping and transport hub, west of Paris. He was released from hospital on Monday. French police have said the knife attack may have been inspired by off-duty British soldier Lee Rigby’s murder in London on May 22 by two men shouting religious slogans. The key suspect in the London attack, Michael Adebolajo, was captured on video carrying bloodied knives and a meat cleaver after the attack, saying he had murdered Rigby because British troops were killing Muslims.
