1 dead, 2 injured in central Paris attack – DW – 12/02/2023

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said late on Saturday that a German tourist had been killed and another person injured in central Paris. 

“The police have just courageously arrested an assailant attacking passers-by in Paris, around the Quai de Grenelle,” Darmanin wrote. “One decased person and one injured person treated by the Paris Fire Brigade. Please avoid the area.” 

The Quai de Grenelle, on the banks of the River Seine, is not far from the Eiffel Tower in the center of France‘s capital.

What do we know about the attack and attacker? 

Darmanin spoke to reporters at the scene later Saturday night. 

He said that the attacker first attacked a “couple” who were German tourists with a knife near Quai de Grenelle, killing one and injuring the other. 

The assailant then crossed the Bir-Hakeim bridge over the Seine, with police arriving on the scene as he reached the other side. 

Darmanin said the suspect then tried to attack two more people with a hammer while pursued by police, injuring one and leaving the other shocked.

“After his arrest, he said that he could no longer bear Muslims dying in Afghanistan as well as in the Palestinian Territories,” Darmanin said of the attacker. 

The minister said the man had a prior four-year conviction from 2016, when French authorities foiled attack plans. 

Darmanin said the country’s terrorism prosecution authority was already evaluating the case but had not yet launched a formal terrorism investigation. 

France raised terrorism alert level in October

French news agency AFP cited unnamed police sources as saying the assailant was French-born and a French citizen, and also a known supporter of radical Islam with mental health issues. Unconfirmed reports suggested the attacker had shouted the Arabic for “God is great” during the attack. 

Several European countries, including France and Germany, have issued warnings of a heightened threat of Islamist attacks in recent weeks amid the Israel-Gaza conflict.

France also raised its terror threat alert level in October, soon after Hamas’ October 7 attacks in Israel, when a teacher was attacked and killed in class. A few days later, the Louvre art museum and the palace of Versailles were evacuated amid a bomb threat. 

msh/sms (AFP, Reuters)