Paris knife attack: Man shouting 'Allahu Akbar' kills 1, injures 2 near Eiffel Tower

NEW DELHI: French authorities apprehended a man in Paris on Saturday night after he fatally stabbed a German tourist and wounded two others. The assailant, a 25-year-old French national with a history of incarceration for planning a violent act, was subdued by police using a Taser stun gun, according to France's Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin. Post-arrest, the attacker expressed his distress over the deaths of Muslims, particularly in Afghanistan and Palestinian territories, and accused France of being complicit."Allahu Akbar" (God is great) were the words he reportedly shouted during the attack, as stated by Darmanin.
Darmanin conveyed to the media, “This person was ready to kill others.”
The anti-terrorism prosecutor's office has initiated an investigation into the incident.
The assailant assaulted a German tourist couple on the Quai de Grenelle, just steps from the Eiffel Tower, resulting in the man's death, and subsequently injured two others using a hammer.
The attacker, whose identity was not disclosed, was released from prison in 2020 after serving a four-year sentence. He was under surveillance and receiving psychiatric treatment, revealed the minister. The assailant, born in Neuilly-Sur-Seine, a suburb of Paris, was recently residing with his parents in Essonne, south of Paris.
The deadly assault took place in Paris's 15th district, where the German tourist was killed with a knife. The assailant then crossed over to the Right Bank of the Seine river and attacked two more people with a hammer. Specific details about the victims were not immediately available.
Police managed to stop the attacker by firing a taser at him twice in the stomach, as mentioned by the minister, who commended the officers for their prompt action and noted that their response likely prevented further fatalities.
This incident heightens the ongoing terror alert in France, which has been in place since the fatal stabbing of a teacher in Arras in October by a former student from Russia's Ingushetia region, suspected of Islamic radicalization. This attack followed the murder of another teacher outside Paris three years prior, who was beheaded by a radicalized Chechen, later killed by police.
The attack on Saturday has escalated fears in Paris, a city still bearing the scars of the 2015 attacks on cafes and a music hall by Islamist radicals that resulted in 130 deaths.
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, in a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, asserted, “We will cede nothing in the face of terrorism. Never,” while extending her condolences to the victims and their families.
(With inputs from agencies)