The father of a suspected militant shot by French soldiers as he carried out a machete attack at the Louvre museum in Paris says his son is not a terrorist.
Retired police general Reda al-Hamamy said his son Abdullah “is a simple guy”.
The attacker, a 29-year-old Egyptian, was shot in the stomach while shouting “Allahu Akbar” (“God is greatest”) on Friday.
He is no longer in a critical condition, AFP news agency reports.
However the police source cited by AFP said the man was still unable to communicate and could not be questioned.
French officials have not confirmed the identity of the suspect, but Egyptian security sources have named him as Abdullah Reda al-Hamamy.
Abdullah arrived in France on 26 January after obtaining a tourist visa in Dubai, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said on Friday.
Police are trying to establish if he acted alone or under instructions, he added.
Mr al-Hamamy, Abdullah’s father, told Reuters news agency that his son had not been radicalised and labelling him a terrorist was “nonsense”.
President Francois Hollande praised the soldiers’ actions, saying they had “prevented an attack whose terrorist nature leaves little doubt”.
The suspect is believed to have bought two machetes after arriving in Paris.
The guards on patrol outside the museum were just some of the thousands of troops lining the streets as part of the stepped-up response to a series of attacks in France since 2015.
A series of assaults by gunmen and suicide bombers claimed by so-called Islamic State killed 130 people in November 2015.
In January of the same year, 17 people were killed in an attack on the Charlie Hebdo magazine and linked shootings.
Last July, 86 people were killed when a lorry ploughed through crowds celebrating Bastille Day in Nice.
Security has become a theme of the French presidential election in April, which sees far-right leader Marine Le Pen and centrist independent Emmanuel Macron leading the polls.
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