KUALA LUMPUR – The attacker who stabbed a German tourist to death and injured two others near the Eiffel Tower in Paris on Saturday night is known as a radical Islamist with mental health troubles.
He had shouted “Allahuakbar” before being arrested, and the case is being investigated by French anti-terror prosecutors, reported AFP.
While the country is on its highest alert as tensions rise amid the Israel-Hamas war, French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne tweeted that “we will not give in to terrorism” after the stabbing.
According to Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, the 26-year-old attacker told police he could not stand Muslims being killed in Afghanistan and Palestine.
He said a taxi driver who saw the attack tried to help, but the suspect ran across the Seine, attacking others and injuring one with a hammer while the police were in pursuit.
Later, the police used a taser on the suspect and arrested him.
Darmanin said the suspect had been sentenced in 2016 to four years in prison for planning an attack he failed to carry out.
Meanwhile, the Paris prosecutor’s office said the attacker is French, born in 1997, and has been arrested for murder and attempted murder.
The dead German tourist was born in the Philippines, it added.
France is home to large Jewish and Muslim populations and has stepped up security as it prepares to host the 2024 Summer Olympics.
The most deadly incident in France was the November 2015 terror attacks in Paris, which saw 130 people killed. Isis had claimed responsibility.
Immediately after, the country endured a three-month state of emergency, which included a ban on public demonstrations, police searches without warrants, and house arrests without trial, among others. – December 3, 2023