Deadly knife attack in Paris revives concerns about terrorism

A German tourist was killed and several other people were injured in central Paris late Saturday after a man attacked them with a knife and a hammer, French authorities said. The case stoked fears of new Islamic terror attacks in an already tense country.

Shortly after the assault, a suspect was arrested nearby. Authorities said he had severe psychiatric disorders and had told police he was angry about the deaths of Muslims around the world, including in Gaza. France’s national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office said it had opened an investigation.

Gérald Darmanin, France’s interior minister, said the suspect first attacked two German tourists on the Quai de Grenelle, not far from the Eiffel Tower, shortly after 9 p.m., killing one of them, a Philippine-born German man. killed with a knife. The other person, a woman, was not injured, Mr. Darmanin said.

“This person was clearly willing to kill other people,” Mr Darmanin told reporters in Paris.

France was hit by large-scale Islamist terror attacks in 2015 and 2016, and then a series of smaller but deadly shootings and stabbings in subsequent years. The country remains on the highest alert level for terrorism threats following the murder of a teacher in northern France last month.

“We will not give in to terrorism,” said Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne said on Xformerly Twitter, after Saturday’s attack.

Mr. Darmanin did not identify the suspect but said he was French, born in 1997 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, an upscale Paris suburb, and on the radar of French intelligence services.

The man was convicted in 2016 of a foiled attempt to carry out a “violent action” and was released in 2020, Mr Darmanin said, but gave no further details.

The suspect, who lives with his parents just south of Paris, has “very serious psychiatric disorders” and is undergoing psychiatric and neurological treatment, Mr. Darmanin said.

A taxi driver who tried to stop the attacker after the German couple was attacked heard the suspect shouting in Arabic: “God is great,” Mr Darmanin said.

After that attack, the attacker fled across the Seine via the Bir-Hakeim Bridge, which connects the seventh and 16th arrondissements of Paris, Mr. Darmanin said.

He said a police patrol car at the scene began chasing the attacker, who then attacked two other people – another tourist and a Frenchman in his 60s – with a hammer, wounding one of them in the eye. Their injuries were not life-threatening, Mr Darmanin added.

The officers arrested the man in a nearby square, where he threatened them “very violently” and tried to attack an officer, who subdued the attacker with a stun gun, Mr. Darmanin said.

During his arrest, the suspect again said “God is Great” in Arabic, Mr. Darmanin said; added that he was upset by the deaths of Muslims in Afghanistan and Gaza; and accused France of being “complicit” in Israel’s actions there.

Saturday’s attack came less than a year before the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, where an opening ceremony will take place on the Seine River, fueling growing security concerns.