One person died and two others were injured after a man attacked tourists in central Paris near the Eiffel Tower, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Saturday.
Police quickly arrested the 26-year-old man, a French national, using a Taser stun gun, Darmanin told reporters.
The suspect had been sentenced to four years in prison in 2016 for planning another attack and was on the French security services’ watch list, and was also known for having psychiatric disorders, the interior minister added.
The attack took place around 1900 GMT when the man attacked a tourist couple with a knife on the Quai de Grenelle, a few feet away from the Eiffel Tower, mortally wounding a German national. He was then chased by police and attacked two other people with a hammer before being arrested.
The suspect had shouted out “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest) and told police he was upset because “so many Muslims are dying in Afghanistan and in Palestine” and was also upset about the Gaza situation, Darmanin said.
The anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office said it was in charge of the investigation.
Saturday night’s incident in central Paris occurred less than eight months before the French capital hosts the Olympic Games and could raise questions about security at the global sporting event.
Paris plans an unprecedented opening ceremony on the Seine river that may draw as many as 600,000 spectators.
FACTBOX-Attacks in France in recent years
An assailant killed a German tourist in a knife attack in the heart of Paris on Saturday and later told police that he could not bear the deaths of Muslims in Afghanistan and the occupied Palestinian territories, the French interior minister said.
Two other people were hurt after being struck with a hammer in the attack.
Here are some other attacks that have taken place in France in recent years:
– Oct 13, 2023 – One teacher was killed and another wounded in a knife attack at a high school in northern French town of Arras on Friday.
The suspected attacker was known to law enforcement agencies and was on a state ‘Fiche S’ watchlist of people known as a potential security risk.
– June 9, 2023 – A Syrian national wounded four children and two pensioners in a knife attack in the Alpine town of Annecy.
– May 22, 2023 – An assailant fatally stabbed a nurse and wounded another hospital worker with a kitchen knife in Reims.
It was one of a spate of violent incidents recently that prompted President Emmanuel Macron to denounce what he called a process of “de-civilisation” in French society.
– Jan. 11, 2023 – A man attacked and wounded six people at the Gare du Nord train station in Paris with a homemade weapon, leaving one with serious injuries, before being shot by off-duty police officers.
– Dec. 23, 2022 – A gunman killed three people at a Kurdish cultural centre and nearby Kurdish cafe in central Paris, prompting violent street protests.
– Oct. 29, 2020 – An attacker with a knife killed three people and wounded several others at a church in the southern city of Nice.
– Oct. 16, 2020 – Middle school teacher Samuel Paty was knifed to death on the street of a Paris suburb after showing his teenage students a cartoon lampooning the Prophet Mohammad as part of a class on freedom of expression.
– Sept. 25, 2020 – Two people were stabbed and wounded in Paris near the former offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine, where Islamist militants carried out a deadly attack in 2015. A man originally from Pakistan was arrested over the attack.
– Jan. 3, 2020 – Police shot dead a man near Paris after he went on a rampage with a knife in a park, killing one person and wounding two more.
– Oct. 3, 2019 – Mickael Harpon, 45, an IT specialist with security clearance to work in the Paris police headquarters, killed three police officers and one civilian employee before being shot dead by police. He had converted to Islam 10 years earlier.
– March 23, 2018 – A gunman killed three people in southwestern France after holding up a car, firing on police and taking hostages in a supermarket. Security forces stormed the building and killed him.
– July 26, 2016 – Two attackers killed a priest and seriously wounded another hostage in a church in northern France before being shot dead by police. Francois Hollande, president at the time, said the hostage-takers had pledged allegiance to Islamic State.
– July 14, 2016 – A gunman drove a heavy truck into a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, killing 86 people and injuring scores more in an attack claimed by Islamic State. The attacker was identified as a Tunisian-born Frenchman.
– June 14, 2016 – A Frenchman of Moroccan origin stabbed a police commander to death outside his home in a Paris suburb and killed his partner, who also worked for the police. The attacker told police he was answering an appeal by Islamic State.
– Nov. 13, 2015 – Paris was rocked by multiple gun and bomb attacks on entertainment sites around the city, in which 130 people were killed and 368 wounded. Islamic State said it was responsible. Two of the 10 known perpetrators were Belgian citizens and three were French.
– Jan. 7-9, 2015 – Two Islamist militant gunmen broke into satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo’s offices on Jan. 7 and killed 12 people. Another militant killed a policewoman the next day and took hostages at a supermarket on Jan. 9, killing four before police shot him dead.