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The Pakistani-born teenager arrested on suspicion of stabbing two people with a meat cleaver has admitted to deliberately targeting the former Paris office of Charlie Hebdo magazine.

The 18-year-old, named by investigators as Hassan A., reportedly tied the attack to the satirical magazine’s recent republication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, investigators said on September 26.

The stabbings came roughly three weeks after the start of the trial in Paris of 14 suspected accomplices in the January 2015 attacks on Charlie Hebdo, in which 12 were killed.

The court has heard that the suspects had sought to avenge the Prophet Muhammad, nearly a decade after Charlie Hebdo published cartoons mocking him. Ahead of the start of the trial, Charlie Hebdo reprinted some of the caricatures.

The two wounded victims of the September 25 stabbing -- a man and a woman -- were taking a cigarette break outside the Premieres Lignes news-production agency when the incident occurred.

Premieres Lignes's offices are on the same block in central Paris that formerly housed Charlie Hebdo.

A source close to the inquiry told AFP that the Pakistani teenager mistakenly believed Charlie Hebdo's offices were still in that building and wanted to attack journalists from the magazine.

Charlie Hebdo moved offices after the 2015 attack and its current address is kept secret.

The suspect, who was arrested with blood on his clothing not far from the crime scene, "takes responsibility for his action” and places the attack "in the context of the republication of cartoons" of the Prophet Mohammed in Charlie Hebdo on the eve of the trial opening, sources told AFP news agency.

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on September 25 the knifing was "clearly an act of Islamist terrorism.”

“Obviously, there is little doubt. It's a new bloody attack against our country, against journalists, against this society,” he said in an interview with the France 2 television station.

Anti-terror prosecutors have opened an investigation.

The interior minister said the main suspect was believed to have arrived in France three years ago as an unaccompanied minor from Pakistan. He had not been flagged for radicalization.

Investigators said he acted alone but police have detained eight other people for questioning, including the suspect's younger brother.

An Algerian man who was also arrested shortly after the stabbings for possible links to main suspect has been released. His lawyer told AFP that the man had tried to stop the attacker.

With reporting by AFP, AP, and Reuters.

France's counterterrorism prosecutor's office has opened an investigation after two people were wounded in a knife assault in Paris near the former offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo -- the scene of a 2015 terrorist attack that killed 12 people.

The prosecutor's office said on September 25 that an investigation had been opened into “attempted murder in relation to a terrorist enterprise" and "conspiracy with terrorists."

Two suspects were arrested, one of whom had blood on his clothing. A blade -- described as a machete or a meat cleaver --- was recovered at the scene of the attack.

Europe 1 radio quoted police as saying the suspect with blood on his clothing was 18 years old and was known to security services. He was detained near the Bastille plaza in eastern Paris, according to French media reports.

Reuters quoted a Paris police source as saying that one arrested suspect was Pakistani and the other was Algerian.

Officers cordoned off the area, including the former offices of Charlie Hebdo, after a suspicious package was reported nearby. Police said no explosives were found.

The Premieres Lignes news-production agency said the wounded were its employees -- a man and a woman taking a cigarette break outside.

"They were both very badly wounded," the founder and co-head of Premieres Lignes, Paul Moreira, told the AFP news agency.

It is unclear whether the attack is linked to Charlie Hebdo, which moved its activities out of the area after Islamic militants attacked its editorial offices in 2015, killing 12 people.

The incident comes as a high-profile trial is under way in Paris of 14 people including three fugitives, accused of helping two militants carry out the January 2015 attack on Charlie Hebdo.

The court heard that the suspects had sought to avenge the Prophet Muhammad, nearly a decade after Charlie Hebdo published cartoons mocking him.

Police moved Charlie Hebdo's head of Human Resources from her home this week after threats against her life.

With reporting by AP, AFP, Reuters, dpa, and the BBC