By Freddy Pawle for Daily Mail Australia

Published: 1:51 AM EDT, March 11, 2024 | Updated: 02:51 EDT, March 11, 2024

By Antoinette Milienos for Daily Mail Australia

Published: 4:10 PM EST, January 6, 2024 | Updated: 4:39 PM EST, January 6, 2024

The French-Iranian knifeman who allegedly stabbed a tourist to death and injured two others, including an Englishman, in Paris has now been named and pictured, and is a known convicted terrorist with serious psychiatric problems.

Despite this, Armand Rajabpour-Miyandoab, 26, was released from prison in 2020 and continued to live at home with his parents while undergoing “psychiatric and neurological treatment.”

On Sunday, he was under armed guard and facing multiple charges, including murder, following a massacre near the Eiffel Tower on Saturday evening.

Rajabpour-Miyandoab allegedly used a knife and a hammer to kill a 24-year-old German-Filipino tourist, before attacking two more unnamed victims, including a British father.

He shouted “Allahu Akbar” as he was arrested by Paris police, who immobilized him with a stun gun.

Armand Rajabpour-Miyandoab was sentenced to four years in prison in 2016 for terrorist conspiracy.

The son of two Iranian refugees and born in France, he had converted to Islam in 2015 after being radicalized online by an ISIS supporter, prosecutors’ documents show.

Rajabpour-Miyandoab was known for forging online ties with other terrorists, including Larossi Aballa, who stabbed two police officers to death in Magnanville in June 2016.

Another Facebook friend was Adel Kermiche, one of the perpetrators of the stabbing death of a Catholic priest in Saint-Étienne du Rouvray the same year.

Many of those involved in such crimes, like Rajabpour-Miyandoab, were on S-file, meaning they are officially under surveillance.

Rajabpour-Miyandoab later claimed to have completed a ‘deradicalization programme’ and claimed he had lost interest in terrorism.

He was released in early 2020 and entered a treatment program for “psychiatric and neurological problems,” an investigating source said.

In court in 2018, he said: “Islamism ruined my life,” claiming he had drank beer and eaten pork – activities banned for practicing Muslims.

But online activity showed that Rajabpour-Miyandoab was still researching how to make phosphorus bombs, and posted a video of himself in disguise and making political statements.

He regularly complained about the number of Muslims killed in global conflicts, including Afghanistan and Israel-Hamas.

At one point he accused France of being “complicit” in “war crimes” committed by Israeli forces against thousands of massacred Palestinian civilians.

During his captivity, he had repeatedly complained about “the murder of Muslims in Afghanistan and Palestine.”

He also referred to the current conflict between Israel and Hamas, claiming that “France was complicit” with Israel in the massacre of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza.

The deadly attack in central Paris on a busy weekend night put the country on high alert for attacks as tensions rise against the backdrop of the war between Israel and Hamas.

He fatally stabbed the as-yet-unnamed German tourist, born in the Philippines in 1999, in the back and shoulder, leading to cardiac arrest before he died.

The second victim of the attack was British and was walking with his wife when Armand R. attacked him from behind.

“The family was on President Kennedy Avenue when they were attacked,” said an investigating source, who added: “A hammer was used to hit the man on the head.”

The Englishman was rushed to hospital, where his condition was later described as ‘stable’. A third victim was also seriously injured in a hammer attack, the source said.

The British Foreign Office said today: ‘We are supporting a British man who was injured in Paris and are in contact with local authorities.’

The area near Bir Hakeim Bridge, usually packed with tourists and locals, was cordoned off by police and illuminated by flashing lights from security forces and emergency services.

A taxi driver who witnessed the scene intervened, Darmanin said.

“He had threatened them very violently… he will now have to appear in court,” Darmanin said.

The attack has rocked France, where tensions have risen over the Israeli-Hamas conflict.

President Emmanuel Macron said he offered his condolences to the family of a German killed in the “terrorist attack.”

Macron, writing on

“We will not yield to terrorism,” Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne wrote after the attack on X.

“Paris is in mourning after this terrible attack,” Transport Minister Clement Beaune wrote on X.

Joseph S., a 37-year-old supermarket manager who asked that his last name not be given, witnessed the scene while sitting in a bar and said he heard screaming and people shouting “help, help” as they ran.

He said a man with an object attacked a man who had fallen, and within 10 minutes police arrived.

France has suffered several attacks by Islamist extremists, including the suicide and gun attacks in Paris in November 2015, claimed by Islamic State, which killed 130 people.

There has been relative silence in recent years, even as officials have warned that the threat remains.

But tensions have risen in France, home to a large Jewish and Muslim population, following Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7 and Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Security in Paris is also under special attention as it prepares to host the 2024 Summer Olympics.

In October, teacher Dominique Bernard was murdered in the northern French city of Arras by a young radicalized Islamist from the Russian Caucasus.

• The attack took place shortly after 1pm local time near Parnell Square, reports said
• Photos from the crash scene showed several emergency responders

By Chris Jewers

Published: 09:25 EST, November 23, 2023 | Updated: 09:51 EST, November 23, 2023