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04-12-2023
PARIS: A German tourist has been killed and two other people wounded in a knife attack close to the iconic Eiffel Tower in central Paris, according to the French interior minister.
“A man attacked a couple who were foreign tourists. A German tourist who was born in the Philippines died from the stabbing,” Gerald Darmanin said on Sunday, adding that “he will now have to answer for his actions before justice” for the attack that took place at about 19:00 GMT on Saturday.
The attacker was known to authorities and was being treated for mental illness, Darmanin said.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said the attacker, a 26-year-old French citizen, has been arrested and an investigation has been launched.
The “anti-terrorism” prosecutor’s office said it had not yet been put in charge of an investigation.
Darmanin said the man had already been sentenced in 2016 to four years in prison for planning another attack which he failed to carry out.
“I send all my condolences to the family and loved ones of the German national who died this evening during the terrorist attack,” President Emmanuel Macron posted on social media.
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said on X that her country “will cede nothing in the face of terrorism … never”.
The incident comes less than eight months before the Olympic Games in Paris, prompting concerns about the security measures for the upcoming global sporting event.
The city is gearing up for the opening ceremony on the Seine River, which is expected to attract up to 600,000 spectators.
France has been under a heightened alert for possible attacks since October, when a teacher was fatally stabbed in the northern city of Arras by a former student originally from the Ingushetia region in Russia’s Caucasus Mountains.
That fatal attack came three years after another teacher was killed outside Paris, beheaded by a Chechen, and who was later killed by police.
A rift between the Muslim world and France is widening, as leaders and the public in several Muslim countries respond to a speech on October 2 in which President Emmanuel Macron said Islam was “in crisis” globally.
The fallout is deepening amid renewed French support for the right to show caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. (Int’l News Desk)
