Pregnant wife of jailed French terrorist shot dead by the police after he stabbed two guards during the visit

Michael Chiolo, 27, knifed the supervisors at the high security Alencon-Conde-sur-Sarthe facility in Normandy in what police called a terror attack.

He and his wife – named locally as Hanane Aboulhana – then locked themselves inside the “family facility” on Tuesday morning while screaming “Allahu Akbar” – Arabic for “God is the greatest”.

Chiolo – who a judge called a “psychopath” when he was jailed in 2014 for murdering a Holocaust survivor – was himself severely wounded before being captured.

Despite serving a 30-year-prison sentence for his horrific crime, Chiolo was still allowed regular family visits – including “conjugal” time for sex with Aboulhana.

Describing the knife rampage earlier on Tuesday, French Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet said: “The terrorist nature of this attack isn’t in doubt.”

Ms Belloubet said Aboulhana, 34, “feigned illness” at around 9.45am – prompting two prison officers to arrive.

It was then that the inmate lashed out with his knife – wounding one man in the chest, and the other in the back and face.

Both guards have since been treated and neither are in a life-threatening condition. Aboulhana is thought to have smuggled a ceramic knife into the prison.

There were also fears that explosives may have been made available to her husband – but an apparent suicide bomb belt turned out to be fake.

Anti-terrorist prosecutor Remy Heitz said the pair were yelling Allahu Akbar during the attack.

The couple remained barricaded in the private quarters for nearly 10 hours until specialist RAID anti-terror cops stormed the locked room at about 6pm local time (5pm GMT).

A prison source said: “There were explosions, and gun shots, and then the husband was wounded but arrested. His wife died from gunfire wounds, however.”

Now it has emerged that Chiolo had spent almost six months locked up with Cherif Chekatt, the 29-year-old ISIS operative who killed five people and wounded 11 at the Strasbourg Christmas Market on December 11.

Chekatt was himself gunned down by police two days later following a manhunt involving more than 700 officers.

Heitz added: “The two men knew each other well, and Chiolo wanted to avenge Chekatt’s death. He said he was wearing an explosive belt and threatened to use it.”

Islamic convert Chiolo was jailed for kidnapping, torturing and finally killing an 89-year-old concentration camp survivor.

Roger Tarall died as Chiolo and two other men ransacked his home in Montigny-les-Metz in April 2012.

Mr Tarall had been arrested by the Gestapo and deported to Dachau during the Second World War, but survived the notorious camp near Munich.

A source close to the case said: “Mr Tarall was threatened with a shotgun and then tied up with wires and blankets

“He died from asphyxiation.”

The source added: “Chiolo was caught soon afterwards after boasting about the murder to a girlfriend.”

Aboulhana was pregnant – meaning she is unlikely to have been searched as rigorously as other inmates when she went to visit him today.

French prison officials have often complained about the ease with which visitors can smuggle in ceramic knives – which can pass through metal detectors.

It was during an appeal hearing in 2014 that a judge called Chiolo a “psychopath”.

Soon afterwards he was given another year in prison for asking his fellow inmates in Mulhouse to “recreate the Bataclan attack.”

This was a reference to the November 2015 attack on the Bataclan music venue in Paris – when 89 people were murdered in cold blood by gunmen affiliated to Islamic State.

Knife attacks have also been a common tactic used by France-born Islamic State operatives carrying out attacks in France since 2015.

Source: The Sun