One person was killed and two police officers were seriously injured in what Emmanuel Macron called an “Islamist terror attack” in eastern France on Saturday.
The Algerian suspect, who authorities said was on a terror prevention watchlist, was arrested in the city of Mulhouse, near the Swiss and German borders, following the knife attack, according to local media.
Three more police officers and one parking attendant were lightly injured in the attack. The French president said he had “no doubt” the attack was terror related.
The stabbing spree occurred shortly before 4pm on Saturday in the middle of a market near a demonstration about the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to the local prosecutor.
The suspect allegedly shouted “Allahu Akbar” multiple times during the attack, according to France’s national anti-terror prosecutors unit (PNAT), which has taken charge of the investigation.
A number of police officers were injured in the attack
The PNAT said it was investigating the attack for murder, and attempted murder “in connection with a terrorist enterprise”.
A passer-by died after suffering multiple stab wounds after trying to intervene in the attack, according to the local prosecutor.
One of the seriously wounded police officers sustained an injury to the carotid artery, and the other to the thorax, the prosecutor said.
The suspect was under an order to leave France after being released from a detention centre in June and had since been under house arrest, Le Parisien added.
The newspaper reported that the attack occurred shortly after the 37-year-old allegedly refused to appear at the Mulhouse national police station.
“It is without any doubt an act of Islamist terrorism,” Mr Macron told reporters on the sidelines of the annual French farm show.
The government was determined to continue doing “everything to eradicate terrorism on our soil”, the president said, adding that the “solidarity of the nation” was with the victims.
The attack took place in the middle of a market near a demonstration – Sebastien Bozon/AFP via Getty Images
Michèle Lutz, the mayor of Mulhouse, spoke of the “horror that just swept over our town”.
She said officers who had tried to “neutralise” the attacker were injured in the process in what has been described as a suspected terror attack.
“I extend our feelings to the victims and their loved ones,” Ms Lutz said.
Francois Bayrou, the French prime minister, said “fanaticism has struck again, and we are in mourning”.
Bruno Retailleau, the interior minister, was expected to travel to the scene of the attack later Saturday.
The attack is being investigated by the national anti-terror prosecutors unit – Sebastien Bozon/AFP via Getty Images
The terror watchlist, called FSPRT, compiles data from various authorities on individuals with the aim of preventing “terrorist” radicalisation.
It was launched in 2015 following the deadly attacks at the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and on a Jewish supermarket.
The latest attack follows a spate of stabbings and terror incidents in Europe over the last 12 months, particularly in Germany.
On Friday, a Syrian asylum seeker was arrested after stabbing a tourist at Berlin’s Holocaust memorial. He had been harbouring a “plan to kill Jews”, according to German prosecutors.
Earlier this month, an Afghan migrant drove his car into a crowd in Munich, killing a mother and her two-year-old daughter and injuring at least 30 more.
The increase in attacks has become a major flashpoint in the German election, which takes place on Sunday.
Following a deadly stabbing in Bavaria in January, Friedrich Merz, the favourite to be the next German chancellor, vowed to implement permanent border controls.
“We see before us the ruins of 10 years of misguided asylum and immigration policy in Germany,” he said at the time. “We reached the limit.”
