EA Muslim man stabbed a German tourist to death in Paris, not far from the Eiffel Tower, on Saturday evening. Two others were injured, one of them with a hammer. French Interior Minister Gerald Dorman’s X earlier wrote on Twitter that police had arrested the suspected perpetrator. Arriving at the crime scene, Darmanin said the perpetrator was known to the domestic secret service because of radical Islamism and “significant psychological disturbances,” according to BFMTV television.
French President Emmanuel Macron has expressed his condolences to the relatives of the German citizen who died. Prime Minister Elizabeth Bourne wrote in X: “We will not give in to terrorism. Never.” The Office of the National Counterterrorism Attorney said it would investigate the attack.
The assailant attacked a “German tourist couple” on a bridge in the evening, and the woman was not physically injured but traumatized, Tharmanin said. The man was hit in the back and shoulder and suffered a heart attack, Le Parisien newspaper reported, citing police. The assailant then fled and assaulted two more people before he was later arrested. The police used an electric shock gun to catch the attacker.
Darmanin said the two injured were a Frenchman in his 60s and a foreign tourist who was hit with a hammer. According to media reports, he is said to be an Englishman.
Attacker sees French complicity in war in Gaza
The attacker was reportedly a Frenchman of Iranian origin born in 1997. Darmanin said the accused said after his arrest that he could not bear to see Muslims dying in both Afghanistan and Palestine. The man believed France was complicit in Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip and wanted to die as a martyr. According to reports, the arrested man had already been sentenced to four years in prison for a failed attack plan in 2016.
The man shouted “Allahu Akbar” (roughly: “God is great”) when he was arrested, BFMTV and “Le Parisien” reported, citing police. A video of the confession was also found. According to “Le Parisien”, the alleged perpetrator reportedly swore allegiance to the Islamic State terrorist organization. He is said to be acting to “revenge Muslims”.
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