A German was killed and two people injured in a knife and hammer attack near the Eiffel Tower in Paris on Saturday evening. The suspected perpetrator, a Frenchman known for radical Islamism and mental disorders, was arrested, according to the police and judiciary.
The French justice system has opened an investigation into murder and attempted murder.
The attacker, a Frenchman born in 1997, stabbed a man of German nationality born in 1999 and injured two others a few hundred meters from the Eiffel Tower. He was arrested and taken into police custody as part of the investigation entrusted to the Paris criminal police, the Paris public prosecutor’s office said.
AFP
According to a police source, the suspected perpetrator, aged in his 20s and known for his radical Islamism and psychiatric disorders, shouted “Allah akbar” at the time of the incident.
He had already been sentenced to four years in prison in 2016 for violent actions, said French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin at a press conference on site.
Knife attack in Paris: “The events occurred around 9:40 p.m.” There would be at least three victims. The first victim suffered multiple stab wounds and the second suffered a hammer blow to the back of the head. #EveningInfoWE pic.twitter.com/ZVGyd2tv65
– CNEWS (@CNEWS) December 2, 2023
According to Mr. Darmanin, the deceased victim was a German tourist. The two injured were a Frenchman aged about 60 and a foreign tourist, whose nationality was not specified, who was injured with a hammer, he said.
“We will not give in to terrorism,” responded French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne.
AFP
“My thoughts are with the victim, the injured and their families. “I salute the courage and professionalism of our law enforcement agencies and our mobilized emergency services,” wrote the French head of government on X. Joseph S., 37 years old, supermarket manager, witnessed the scene, installed in a bar. He heard screams and people Shouting “Help, help” and running left and right. He described a man attacking a fallen man “with a hammer in his hand.” However, according to this witness, police arrived within “5 to 10 minutes.”
AFP
“Paris mourns this terrible attack,” Clément Beaune, the French transport minister, tweeted on he added.
The President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, also expressed his condolences to the victims of the attack.
I express my deepest condolences to the family and relatives of the German citizen who died in the terrorist attack in Paris this evening and think with emotion of the people who are currently injured and in care.
My most sincere thanks go to the forces of…
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) December 3, 2023
Precedents
The attack came less than two months after the one in Arras, northern France, that claimed the life of a teacher in mid-October and led to Vigipirate’s security plan being raised to the maximum “emergency attack” level.
Saturday’s approach is reminiscent of previous attacks in the French capital.
In May 2018, a French-Russian citizen born in Chechnya killed a passerby with a kitchen knife after a bitter fight. The attacker attacked about ten people and injured four before being shot dead by police. The attack was claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group.
In February 2017, an Egyptian attacked Operation Sentinel soldiers on duty at the Carrousel du Louvre, near the Louvre Museum in Paris, with a machete and shouted “Allah Akbar”. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison in Paris in June 2021.
A few months later, in October 2017, a man was shot in Marseille after attacking passers-by with a knife, killing two people, two cousins aged 20 and 21, one of whom was studying in Lyon. The attack was claimed by Daesh.