A knife and hammer attack on a street in central Paris on Saturday evening has left a German man dead and two others injured, one of whom is a British man. The attack took place near the Eiffel Tower before 21:00 local time (20:00 GMT), and a 26-year-old French man was later arrested with anti-terrorism prosecutors opening an investigation. The prosecutor, Jean-François Ricard, has since revealed that the suspect had pledged allegiance to Islamic State in a video posted on social media.
Armand R, the French national born in France to Iranian parents, has been named as the suspect. French media have stated that he was released from prison in 2020 after serving a four-year sentence for planning an attack and was supposedly following treatment for psychiatric issues. The man attacked the German tourist who worked as a nurse. The victim’s wife was saved by the intervention of a taxi driver. Authorities revealed that the suspect fled across a nearby bridge spanning the River Seine and attacked two more people on the north side of the river, including a 66-year-old British victim, whom he hit in the eye with a hammer.
Video shared online showed the moment the suspect was apprehended by the armed police near to where the attack happened. The suspect was heard shouting “Allahu Akbar,” Arabic for “God is greatest,” and told police he was upset because “so many Muslims are dying in Afghanistan and in Palestine.” The suspect also reportedly suggested that France was complicit in the deaths of Palestinians in Gaza. It is understood that the two people injured, a Frenchman aged approximately 60, and a British tourist, were treated by the emergency services and were found to be in a non-life-threatening condition.
French President Emmanuel Macron issued a statement on X, formerly Twitter, in which he sent his heartfelt condolences to all those impacted by the “terrorist attack” and praised the emergency services for their swift response. The attack comes less than two months after a schoolteacher was killed in a knife attack in the northern city of Arras, leading to the French government elevating the country to the highest level of national security alert. The national anti-terrorist prosecutor’s office will now investigate the attack to conduct justice for the French people
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