Gare de Lyon in Paris
Knife attack at France’s largest long-distance train station – three injured
After a knife attack, soldiers patrol in front of the Gare de Lyon train station in Paris
© Christophe Ena / AP / DPA
A man in Paris attacked several people at a train station with a knife and hammer. He was arrested. And France must face the security issue again.
An obviously mentally ill man injured three people with a knife in a Paris train station. The man seriously injured one person and slightly injured two others in the busy Gare de Lyon train station on Saturday morning French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin with. The attacker was arrested. Six months before the start of the Olympic Games in Paris with millions of visitors, the attack once again raises questions about security in the city.
As Paris police prefect Laurent Nuñez said at the scene, there is no evidence of a terrorist act. The attacker was apparently mentally ill and appropriate medication was also found on him. An appointment was found for the man at a psychiatric clinic in Turin, Italy. It is a 32-year-old who was regularly staying in Italy.
The attacker attacked travelers with a knife and a hammer shortly before 8 a.m. Railway security personnel overpowered the man. The seriously injured man was stabbed in the stomach and underwent surgery. As the newspaper “Le Parisien” reported, the attacker first set his backpack on fire on an escalator before attacking people.
The Gare de Lyon is the busiest long-distance train station in Paris, from where, among other things, trains depart for the south of France. The attack took place in a waiting room in the basement of the train station.
France and Paris on constant alert for terrorist attacks
There had already been several attacks on travelers in Paris train stations, but they had no terrorist background. At the end of October, police officers shot a woman in an S-Bahn station who had threatened to explode. About a year ago, officers at the Gare du Nord incapacitated an attacker who had previously injured six people with a knife. In February 2022, police officers shot a man at the train station who had threatened them with a knife.
In France and especially in Paris, fear of terrorist attacks and other attacks is omnipresent. Armed military forces regularly patrol sensitive areas. After the fatal knife attack by a young Islamist on a teacher in northern France in October, the highest terror alert level in the country was imposed. However, the warning level was lowered again in mid-January.
Security questions regarding the Olympic Games were particularly raised after a radical Islamist killed a German and injured two other people near the Eiffel Tower in early December. The opening ceremony of the games is planned for the summer not far from the site of the attack, with huge crowds of spectators expected along the Seine in the open air. Interior Minister Darmanin announced that around 300,000 people in total could watch the ceremony – fewer than originally planned. Previously there was talk of 600,000 spectators.