THE man behind a deadly knife attack in central Paris was born in Chechnya in 1997, and his parents have been detained for questioning in the investigation, French authorities said yesterday.

A judicial official said the assailant had French nationality but was born in the Russian republic of Chechnya, where Islamic extremism has long simmered. The official, who wasn’t authorized to be publicly named, provided no other information on the attacker’s identity.

The attacker was slain by police after stabbing a 29-year-old man to death and injuring four others in a lively neighborhood near the Opera Garnier on Saturday night.

French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb held a special security meeting yesterday to address the attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State group and is being investigated by counterterrorism authorities.

Collomb said overnight that authorities were working to find anyone who might have helped the assailant.

The attacker targeted five people and then fled, according to Paris police and a witness. When police officers arrived minutes later, he threatened them and was shot dead, according to police union official Yvan Assioma.

Bar patrons and opera-goers described surprise and confusion, and being ordered to stay inside while the police operation was underway on rue Monsigny in the lively 2nd arrondissement, or district, of the French capital.

“I was working in the restaurant and suddenly I heard a woman screaming ... he came and attacked her,” said Jonathan, a witness working nearby. “That’s when the panic started, everyone started screaming and trying to reach our restaurant. ”

“Police were quickly on the scene, in less than five minutes. They encircled him and he tried to attack them with a knife but they shot him down,” he told reporters.(SD-Agencies)