"Allahu akbar!" - Islamic terrorist killed at Paris airport

With five weeks to go before the first round of voting in France's presidential election, the candidacy of Front National leader Marine Le Pen gets a boost from yet another Islamic terrorist attack. Security forces at Paris's Orly airport shot dead a man who had seized a soldier's gun, soon after the same man shot and wounded a police officer during a routine traffic check in Stains, north of the city.

Bruno le Roux, the Minister of the Interior, told the meeja the man was "known to police and intelligence services", but couldn't bring himself to use words like "Muslim" or "Islamic" or "terrorist". Later, though, a police source described the perp as a "radicalized Muslim", but did not identify him by name. Walt predicts that the Islamic terrorist's first and/or last name will be "Mohammed" or "Mahmoud". Lifetime pct .986.

A spokesthingy for the interior ministry told Reuters, "The man succeeded in seizing the weapon of a soldier. He was quickly neutralized by the security forces." ("Neutralized" is French newspeak for "killed".) No-one else was injured.

The airport was evacuated and security forces swept the area for bombs to make sure the dead man was not wearing an explosive belt, but nothing was found. Flights were suspended from both terminals of the airport and some flights were diverted to Charles de Gaulle airport north of the capital. The anti-terrorism prosecutor opened an investigation.

France remains on high alert after attacks by ISIS militants killed scores of people in the last two years. Coordinated bombings and shootings in Paris in November 2015 killed 130 people. A state of emergency is in place until at least the end of July. Marine Le Pen wants to put an end to the Islamization of France. If anyone wants to wager that she will not top the polls in the first round of the presidential election, Walt will take a piece of that. E-mail your bet to the usual address.