A suspected Islamist killed a German tourist with a knife in Paris not far from the Eiffel Tower on Saturday evening. Two other people were injured, one of them with a hammer. French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that the police had arrested the suspected perpetrator. During a visit to the crime scene, Darmanin said, according to television station BFMTV, that the perpetrator was known to the domestic secret service because of radical Islamism and “significant psychological disorders.”
French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his condolences to the relatives of the German national who died. Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne wrote on X: “We will not give in to terrorism. Never.” The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office said it would look into the attack.
The attacker attacked a “German tourist couple” on a bridge in the evening. The woman was not physically injured, but suffered shock, said Darmanin. The man was hit in the back and shoulder and suffered cardiac arrest, the newspaper reported Le Parisien citing the police. The attacker then fled and then attacked two other people before being arrested. The police used an electric shock gun to catch the attacker.
Darmanin said the two injured were a Frenchman aged about 60 and a foreign tourist who was injured with a hammer. According to media reports, it is said to be an Englishman. According to reports, the attacker is a Frenchman of Iranian descent born in 1997. Darmanin said the alleged perpetrator said after his arrest that he could no longer bear that Muslims were dying in both Afghanistan and Palestine. The man was convinced that France was complicit in Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip and wanted to die as a martyr.
According to the information, the arrested man had already been sentenced to four years in prison in 2016 after a failed attack plan. When he was arrested, he is said to have shouted “Allahu Akbar” (roughly: “God is greatest”). This was reported by BFMTV and Le Parisien citing the police. A confessional video was also found. Loud Le Parisien The alleged perpetrator is said to have sworn loyalty to the terrorist organization Islamic State. He is said to claim that he is acting to “avenge the Muslims.”