PARIS // French investigators on Sunday began questioning a suspect in the attack on soldiers at the Louvre Museum in Paris, but the man refused to speak, a judicial source said.
The suspect, believed to be an Egyptian national, was shot in the stomach and seriously wounded after lunging at the soldiers with two machetes on Friday.
The attack was the latest in a string of assaults in France and thrust the issue of security back into the headlines three months ahead of the French presidential election.
Investigators decided to question him at his hospital bed after his condition improved, the source said.
The man "is refusing to speak to investigators for now", the source said, adding that investigators planned to question him again.
The suspect has been held at a Paris hospital since the attack near the museum on Friday morning.
Based on his phone and visa records, he is thought to be Abdallah El Hamahmy, a 29-year-old Egyptian national living in the UAE, who entered France legally on a flight from Dubai on January 26.
Investigators believe Hamahmy rented an expensive apartment near the Champs Elysees.
Investigators say the attacker, who was carrying two machetes and wearing a black T-shirt with a skull design, lunged at four soldiers shouting Allahu Akbar — or God is greatest.
President Francois Hollande said that "there is little doubt as to the terrorist nature of this act".
French investigators have contacted Egyptian officials in hopes of confirming the suspect's identity through DNA testing, a source close to the inquiry said.
They also plan to contact officials in the UAE and in Turkey, since Hamahmy's passport had two visas from Turkey, in 2015 and 2016.
Police are also examining Hamahmy's Twitter account after around a dozen messages were posted in Arabic minutes before the attack.
"In the name of Allah ... for our brothers in Syria and fighters across the world," he wrote, before referring to ISIL in another tweet a minute later.
Reda Refaie Al Hamahmy, the suspect's father, said he trusts the French judiciary to find out the truth behind his son's alleged involvement.
Speaking at the family home in the Nile Delta city of Mansoura, north of Cairo, the father insisted his son Abdullah was not a terrorist and that he leads a normal life with his wife and infant son.
"He went on a company trip and when it was over visited the museum. He was supposed to leave on Saturday," he said adding that his son was married and his pregnant wife was currently staying in Saudi Arabia with their seven-month-old son.
"If he is convicted, God be with us. But if he is innocent, they owe us an apology," he said.
Over the past two years, France has suffered a string of bloody attacks by Islamic extremists and has been under a state of emergency since November 2015.
The worries have taken a toll on the Louvre, a former palace in the heart of Paris, which has seen annual visitor numbers fall to 7.3 million since November 2015, a drop of around two million.
The museum reopened on Saturday under a heavy presence of police and soldiers, after being closed immediately after the attack.
* Agence France-Presse and Associated Press
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