Louvre machete suspect Egyptian who posted 'support for Isil minutes before attack'

An Egyptian man suspected of launching a machete attack outside Paris's Louvre museum is believed to have professed support for Isil in social media messages posted minutes before the assault, it has emerged.

French investigators believe the man is 29-year-old Abdallah Reda Refai El Hamahmy, who entered the country on a tourist visa.

The attacker, in a black t-shirt bearing a skull design and armed with two 40-centimetre machetes, lunged at four patrolling French soldiers while shouting "Allahu Akbar" ("God is greatest") near the tourist hotspot on Friday.

He was shot five times in the stomach and is in a critical condition in hospital.

"In the name of Allah... for our brothers in Syria and fighters across the world," an account in the name of Abdallah Hamahmy posted in Arabic on Twitter on Friday morning, before making reference to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) jihadist group in another tweet.

"Why are they afraid of the establishment of the Islamic State?” it said. “Because the Islamic State defends its resources and dignity and honor, and respond fight back.”

In the last message posted before the attack, he wrote: "No negotiations, no compromise, no retreat, relentless war." 

Hamahmy, from the province of Dakahlia, north east of Cairo, entered France on a tourist visa on January 26 on a flight from Dubai. His father confirmed yesterday that he had been working at a law firm in the United Arab Emirates for the last two years.

In the weeks before the attack he had been renting an apartment near the Champs Elysee.   Hamahmy posted selfies in front of the Eiffel Tower and Louvre Museum on his Facebook and Twitter accounts, which were suspended after the attack. 

Hamahmy is a son of a former Egyptian police general. Gen. Reda El Hamahmy, who used to serve in Central Security Forces, the Egyptian riot police, said his son is innocent.

"My son is not a terrorist and has no political affiliation," he told al-Masry al-Youm, the daily Egyptian newspaper. “My son did not have any weapons given that he passed through electronic gates yet the French police assault and shot him. We do not know what happened there so it came to that?”

Hamahmy is married, with his pregnant wife currently staying in Saudi Arabia with their seven-month old son, his father said.

He appealed to the Egyptian authorities to investigate, saying he had been living a “quiet family life and is married and works in a law firm and commercial contracts in the UAE, how to be charged with terrorism?"

Islam Abotaleb, one of Hamahmy’s friends, said: "It's unreasonable and nobody believe that he do like this."

"This man is a close friend and a schoolmate. God is my witness; Abdallah El-Hamahmy is an example for polite, good manners, and respect."

US President Donald Trump tweeted following the attack in the French capital: “A new radical Islamic terrorist has just attacked in Louvre Museum in Paris. Tourists were locked down. France on edge again. GET SMART US.”

The incident on Friday has thrust security and the terror threat back into the limelight three months before elections in France.