French guards foil assassination attempt on Nicolas Sarkozy

French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s guards caught a suspected assassin before he could harm the president. The man was found carrying a knife and a Taser-type weapon.

The 25-year-old intruder, wearing a heavy leather jacket, tried to slip past guards at the main entrance of the Elysee Palace on Monday. The guards quickly wrestled him to the ground and found a knife and a Taser inside his jacket. A police van arrived soon after and took him to prison. The police believe the intruder tried to harm Sarkozy and are treating it as an assassination attempt on the president. Officials are questioning the man about his true intentions. At the time of the attack, Sarkozy was inside the building in a meeting with Montenegro Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic. This attack follows the shoe incident in Baghdad, Iraq, in which a man threw a size 10 shoe at U.S. President George Bush during a press conference.