Berlin
A man who tried to attack a Paris police station last week had lived in a centre for asylum seekers in Germany, German investigators said, a finding likely to fuel criticism of Chancellor Angela Merkel's liberal stance towards war refugees.
The man was shot dead by French police on Thursday after he tried to storm the police station in northern Paris, brandishing a meat cleaver and wearing a fake suicide vest.
The assault took place exactly one year since the start of a series of jihadist attacks in France, beginning with the murder of 12 people at the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine on January 7 2015.
On Saturday, German investigators assisting the probe into the attempted police station attack raided an apartment at a shelter for asylum-seekers in Recklinghausen, in the west of the country.
Their statement said the man had lived at the shelter but gave no further details. No other attacks appeared to have been planned, it added.
A source close to the matter told AFP that the suspect had been registered as an asylum seeker.
But French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve cast doubt on the German claim.
"I cannot confirm this, quite simply because I am not at all sure that it is correct," Cazeneuve told France's iTele, and called on the media to exercise the "greatest care" in reporting the man's identity.
