The chief suspect in a double stabbing in Paris told investigators he carried out the attack in anger over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad recently republished by satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, a judicial official said Saturday. Two people were wounded and seven people are in custody after Friday’s attack with a meat cleaver outside the newspaper’s former offices in eastern Paris, which counterterrorism authorities are investigating as an Islamic extremist attack.

Charlie Hebdo lost 12 employees in an al-Qaida attack in 2015 by French-born extremists who had criticized the prophet cartoons. The newspaper, which routinely mocks religious figures of all kinds, decided to republish the caricatures the day before the trial into the 2015 attacks opened earlier this month. The publication drew threats from militant groups as well as criticism from Muslims in multiple countries.

Questioned by investigators, the chief suspect acknowledged carrying out the attack and said he sought to target Charlie Hebdo because of the caricatures, according to an official close to the investigation who wasn’t authorized to be publicly named discussing an ongoing investigation.

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