Louvre Attack Update: Suspect Abdullah al-Hamahmy's Health Declines As Authorities Investigate 'Terrorist' Incident

Details were finally emerging this week about the man police say ran at guards with a machete Friday outside Paris' famous Louvre museum. The suspect, who has been identified as 29-year-old Egyptian Abdullah al-Hamahmy, began speaking to investigators Tuesday. He told them he launched the assault because he wanted to "avenge the Syrian people," Reuters reported.

Hamahmy was hospitalized after the attack, as a soldier shot the suspect multiple times when he approached with the knives. However, his progress was slow: The Paris prosecutor's office told the Associated Press Tuesday that he wasn't in police custody because his condition had "sharply deteriorated during the day."

Authorities have discovered Hamahmy got to France from Dubai on Jan. 26, after which he bought two knives, Agence France Presse reported. He was living in an apartment near the Champs-Elysees — one he rented before he applied for his visa. He reportedly didn't want to attack the soldiers at the Louvre but instead use spray paint to graffiti some of its art.

The suspect's father, Reda al-Hamahmy, told reporters the attacker was married and has a infant. He was in Paris on business. Despite allegedly having posted messages about the Islamic State group on his Twitter account, the suspect was not motivated by terrorism, according to his dad.

"For them to say in the end that he is a terrorist is nonsense," Reda el-Hamahmy told Reuters. "This is a cover up so they don't have to apologize or justify the acts of this soldier who used brute force with a poor young man of 29."

French officials, meanwhile, have repeatedly described the Louvre incident as a terrorist attack. French President Francois Hollande told the media "there is little doubt as to the terrorist nature of this act."

"We are dealing with an attack from an individual who was clearly aggressive and represented a direct threat and whose comments lead us to believe that he wished to carry out a terrorist incident," police chief Michel Cadot said Friday.