A uniformed French soldier on an antiterrorism patrol west of Paris was wounded in the neck Saturday by a robed assailant wielding a box cutter, police and subway authorities said.
The soldier was reported to be out of danger after being transported to a nearby military hospital. The lone attacker was described as a young man wearing a Muslim prayer cap and a North African-style robe called a jellabah. According to a police account, he was monitored on security cameras and seen shedding his robe and fleeing in European clothes before disappearing into the crowd in a subway and suburban train entrance.
A broad manhunt was launched to track him down.
French authorities have warned for months that the country is in danger of a terrorist attack in reprisal for France's military intervention in January against Islamist jihadists in northern Mali. Several thousand French soldiers remain in Mali pending the arrival of a U.N. and African peace maintenance force.