German tourist killed by a suspected Islamist on Saturday night in Paris near the Eiffel Tower with a knife, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said on social media platform X.
The purported attack also injured two additional people. On X, the former Twitter, Darmanin posted that the alleged offender had been taken into custody by the police.
The culprit was known to the domestic intelligence service for radical Islamism and “significant mental disorders,” according to Darmanin, who made this revelation during a visit to the crime site, as reported by television channel BFMTV.
According to reports, the individual in custody was previously given a four-year prison sentence in 2016 for an unsuccessful attack plan.
“We will not give in to terrorism,” stated French Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne in a post on X. Never.”
The national counterterrorism prosecutor’s office announced that it would look into the attack.
The attacker targeted a “German tourist couple” on a bridge. The woman had not been physically injured but went into shock, Darmanin said. The man was hit in the back and shoulder and suffered a cardiac arrest, French newspaper Le Parisien reported, citing the police. The attacker then fled and attacked two other people before being detained.Darmanin continued by stating that the accused culprit had declared, following his apprehension, that he could no longer stand witnessing the deaths of Muslims in Palestine and Afghanistan. The individual intended to die a martyr because he thought France was involved in Israel’s attack in the Gaza Strip.
According to Le Parisien, the alleged offender has pledged loyalty to the terrorist group Islamic State.
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