A man, armed with a hammer and a knife, has killed a German tourist and injured at least two other people this Saturday in the 15th arrondissement (southwest) of Paris. After nine at night, the attacker attacked several passers-by near the area of the Eiffel Tower. Police sources told the network BFM TV that the attacker shouted “Allahu akbar” (God is the greatest in Arabic).
“The policemen ended up with great courage in arresting the assailant,” said the French Interior Minister, Gérald Darmanin, on the social network X, regarding the rapid intervention of the agents who neutralized him with a Taser. The attacker, 26 years old, has French nationality and Iranian roots. His name is Armand R. and he was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, one of the richest towns in the Paris region. He was part of the S file —in which there are people monitored for Islamist radicalism, extreme rightism or for other reasons— and was monitored by the security forces for their mental problemspolice sources told the network BFM TV.
“We will not give in to anything before the terrorism“, reacted Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne. The assailant, who was dressed in black and had a long beard, told the agents who arrested him that “he was fed up with seeing Muslims die in Afghanistan and Palestine.” He also accused France of being “Israel’s accomplice”. The perpetrator of the homicide “had already been sentenced (in 2018) to four years in prison” for having planned a violent attack, Darmanin explained in brief statements to the press near the scene. This Saturday night he posted on social media a video to vindicate his action.
Les policiers viennent d’avoir courageusement interpellé un assaillant s’en prenant à des passants à Paris, autour du quai de Grenelle. A deceased person and a blessed person in charge of the Pompiers of Paris. Merci d’éviter le secteur.
— Gérald DARMANIN (@GDarmanin) December 2, 2023
German tourist murdered
The fatal victim is a German man with Filipino roots who worked as a nurse. They murdered him after receiving several blows to the head and back while he was walking with his partner, who was also injured, through that wealthy district of Paris. While the police chased the assailant, he injured another person hitting her in the eye with a hammer. “The lives of the injured are not in danger,” said the Minister of the Interior. Security forces established a security cordon in the area of the attack, one of the most touristic areas in the French capital. The anti-terrorist prosecutor’s office has taken charge of the investigation.
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“Everything must be clarified about this attack in the heart of Paris,” demanded in her X account the president of the Paris region, the conservative Valérie Pécresse. “Tomorrow the French will wonder how a booked man, already convicted of having planned an attack, with notorious mental problems and in the current context, could walk freely and armed through the streets of Paris,” Jordan Bardella said on the same social network. , president of the far-right National Regrouping (Marine Le Pen party). In fact, this probable attack takes place at a time when a particularly tense political and media debate prevails in France and when xenophobic ideas have the wind in their sails.
The murder, with a possible terrorist motive, occurs almost two months after a young jihadist killed Professor Dominique Bernard at a public institute in Arras, in northern France. That attack practically coincided with the third anniversary of the beheading of the Professor Samuel Paty. After the devastating escalation in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict since October 7, French authorities fear possible repercussions in their country.