Services at Orly Airport in Paris returned to normal yesterday afternoon following a security incident on Saturday morning which led to dozens of flights in and out being affected.
Flights were diverted to Charles de Gaulle until around 3pm local time after a man, named as Ziyed Ben Belgacem was shot dead by security forces after trying to seize a soldier’s weapon at the airport.
According to reports, Ben Belgacem was on a watch-list of radicalised individuals and had been involved in a shooting hours earlier in the north of the city.
He had fired at police with a pellet gun after being stopped at a checkpoint in northern Paris, before escaping in a car that was later found abandoned in the southern suburbs.
French officials said at the airport he had tried to take a gun from a female soldier on duty.
She managed to keep hold of the gun and two other soldiers had opened fire on the attacker.
According to reports, tests showed he had been under the influence of drugs and alcohol at the time of the attack.
