A man suspected of having stabbed two people on the quays of Bordeaux on the evening of Wednesday April 10, including one fatally, was killed by police officers as he tried to flee. “The terrorist trail now seems completely ruled out”however, a police source told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“It appears that the starting point was a dispute linked to the alcohol consumption of the two stabbing victims”. Witnesses also spoke of a fight that went wrong to an AFP journalist present on site. “There were no a priori Islamist comments made by the author”also declared a source close to the investigation.
The victims are of Algerian nationality. The person killed is around thirty years old, the injured person is around twenty years old, a police source said. There is no “no more worry” regarding his vital prognosis.
The motives for the attack or the identity of the attacker are not known, police sources stressed, specifying that the events occurred shortly before 8 p.m., in the busy Miroir d’eau area on the quays of the Garonne.
Judicial investigation in progress
Passers-by crowded around the scene of the attack but the perimeter was quickly cordoned off by police. The circulation of trams, buses and bicycles was prohibited on the Stone Bridge at the foot of which the attacker was shot dead. It will remain closed until tomorrow morning, according to public transport operator TBM.
Bystanders crowded around the scene of the attack, but the perimeter was quickly cordoned off. Police cars and fire trucks were still on scene around 9 p.m.
The mayor of Bordeaux, Pierre Hurmic, the public prosecutor, Frédérique Porterie, and the regional prefect Etienne Guyot visited the site, but without speaking to the press. “The judicial investigation is ongoing”simply declared on the elected environmentalist and the prefect, who specifies that “the area will remain cordoned off by the police for as long as necessary”.