PARIS — French police arrested a man who targeted passersby in Paris on Saturday night, killing a German tourist with a knife and injuring two others, France’s interior minister said.
French President Emmanuel Macron said he was sending his condolences to the family of the victim and called the stabbing a terror attack,
The suspected attacker was “quickly” arrested and justice should now be done “in the name of the French people”, he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
“We will not give in to terrorism,” French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said after the attack, as anti-terror prosecutors announced they would probe the stabbing.
Police subdued the man, a 25-year-old French citizen who had spent four years in prison for a violent offense. After his arrest, he expressed anguish “so many Muslims are dying in Afghanistan and in Palestine,” adding that he was upset about the situation in Gaza and claimed that France was an accomplice, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said.
The attack happened in the 15th district of the French capital near the Eiffel Tower, with the assailant using a knife to kill and a hammer to attack the injured. Details about the victims were not immediately known.
The attacker was stopped by police who twice fired a taser at him in the stomach, the minister said, praising the officers for their quick response and reiterating that “there would doubtless have been other dead.”
The attack took place close to the Eiffel Tower during a busy late weekend night and came with France on its highest alert for attacks as tensions rise against the background of the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
