PARIS, May 29 (UPI) -- French police arrested a man in the weekend stabbing of a soldier near the Paris business district Wednesday, the Interior Ministry said.
The suspect is a 22-year-old man with a record of petty crimes who was a convert to Islam, CNN affiliate BFM-TV in France reported.
However, Interior Minister Manuel Valls said the investigation was in its early stages and warned against drawing conclusions about whether the suspect could be tied to radical Islam, the BBC said.
"I remain cautious," he said. "We need to know more about his motives, his background, his family environment."
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The soldier sustained wounds to the neck when an assailant attacked him from behind with a sharp object in the La Defense neighborhood Saturday. The 23-year-old soldier was hospitalized with non-life-threatening wounds, France's Defense Ministry said in a statement.
Valls said the suspect was arrested Wednesday in the Yvelines region, about 28 miles from Paris.
The BBC said the suspect was identified through DNA on a can at the scene.
"The aim was to kill the soldier because he was a soldier," Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told BFM-TV Saturday, saying the attacker, who was wearing a robe at the time of the assault, wanted "to kill a soldier who is in charge of French security."
The soldier was on patrol as part of an increased security plan in certain areas in France following the country's intervention in Mali this year, French President Francois Hollande said.
The stabbing in Paris occurred three days after British serviceman Drummer Lee Rigby was killed in broad daylight on a London street. Hollande said all theories would be investigated but so far no evidence linked the two attacks.
