WHAT WE KNOW

An attacker crying "Allahu akbar" killed one person and wounded four others on the streets of Paris Saturday evening before being shot dead by police. Here is what we know so far:

WHAT HAPPENED?

Shortly before 8:50 pm a knife-wielding attacker struck on Rue Monsigny. Two witnesses said the man was shouting "Allahu akbar" (God is greater) during the attack. Police said the man, seeing them approaching, yelled out, "shoot, shoot. I'm going to gun you down." Jonathan, a waiter at a Korean restaurant, said a woman was trying to get into the restaurant and the attacker appeared behind her. He said a young man tried to fend off the attacker who then fled.

WHO WERE THE VICTIMS?

According to sources with knowledge of the case, the man attacked random people in the street. A 29-year-old Frenchman was killed. A 34-year-old man from Luxembourg and a 54-year-old woman were seriously wounded and rushed to hospital. A 26-year-old woman and a 31-year-old man were slightly wounded.

WHAT WAS COP RESPONSE?

French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said police were on the scene "within five minutes" of the attack. Some nine minutes later the assailant was dead, he added. A police source said one officer tried to restrain the attacker with a taser but when that failed a colleague shot the man dead. He was declared dead later.

WHO WAS THE ATTACKER?

The attacker, named as Khamzat A., was born in the Russian republic of Chechnya in November 1997 and his parents were taken into custody yesterday. "He had no judicial record," the source added of the man, who grew up in the eastern city of Strasbourg, taking French citizenship in 2010 on his mother's naturalisation. But he had been on both of France's main watch lists for suspected radicals. The IS group claimed responsibility, but provided no corroborating proof.