A German vacationer was killed and several other different folks injured in central Paris late Saturday after a person attacked them with a knife and a hammer, the French authorities mentioned. The case stirred fears of renewed Islamist terror assaults in a nation already on edge.
A suspect was arrested close by shortly after the assault. The authorities mentioned he had critical psychiatric problems and had informed the police he was upset over the loss of life of Muslims on the planet, together with in Gaza. France’s nationwide antiterrorism prosecutor’s workplace mentioned it had opened an investigation.
Gérald Darmanin, France’s inside minister, mentioned the suspect first attacked two German vacationers shortly after 9 p.m. on the Quai de Grenelle, not removed from the Eiffel Tower, killing one among them, a Filipino-born German man, with a knife. The opposite particular person, a girl, was not injured, Mr. Darmanin mentioned.
“This particular person was clearly able to kill different folks,” Mr. Darmanin informed reporters in Paris.
France was struck by large-scale Islamist terror assaults in 2015 and 2016, after which by a string of smaller however lethal shootings and stabbings in subsequent years. The nation remains to be on its highest terrorism menace alert after the killing final month of a instructor in northern France.
“We received’t give in to terrorism,” Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne mentioned on X after Saturday’s assault.
Mr. Darmanin didn’t determine the suspect, however mentioned he was French, was born in 1997 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, an upscale suburb of Paris, and had been on the radar of French intelligence providers.
The person was convicted in 2016 for a thwarted effort to hold out a “violent motion” and was launched in 2020, Mr. Darmanin mentioned, however he didn’t present additional particulars.
The suspect, who lives together with his dad and mom simply south of Paris, has “very critical psychiatric problems” and is present process psychiatric and neurological remedy, Mr. Darmanin mentioned.
A taxi driver who tried to cease the assailant after the German couple had been attacked heard the suspect shout, “God is nice” in Arabic, Mr. Darmanin mentioned.
After that assault, the assailant fled throughout the Seine River on the Bir-Hakeim Bridge, which connects the Seventh and the sixteenth Arrondissements of Paris, Mr. Darmanin mentioned.
He mentioned {that a} police patrol automotive known as to the scene began pursuing the assailant, who went on to assault two different folks — one other vacationer and a Frenchman in his 60s — with a hammer, injuring one among them within the eye. Their accidents weren’t life-threatening, Mr. Darmanin added.
The officers arrested the person on a close-by sq., the place he threatened them “very violently” and tried to assault an officer, who subdued the assailant with a stun gun, Mr. Darmanin mentioned.
Throughout his arrest, the suspect once more mentioned, “God is Nice” in Arabic, Mr. Darmanin mentioned; added that he was upset by the loss of life of Muslims in Afghanistan and Gaza; and accused France of being “complicit” in Israel’s actions there.
“My condolences exit to the household and family members of the German citizen who died this night within the terrorist assault in Paris, and my ideas are with the folks at present injured and in care,” President Emmanuel Macron mentioned on X.
The assault on Saturday got here lower than a 12 months earlier than the 2024 Summer season Olympic Video games in Paris, which can embrace a gap ceremony on the Seine River that has fueled rising safety considerations.
