A market in France’s eastern city of Mulhouse turned into a bloodbath this afternoon when a 37-year-old Algerian man went on a rampage, stabbing several police officers, killing one and leaving several more injured
A suspected Islamist terrorist who was due to be deported from France killed a man and wounded at least four police officers during a savage knife attack in a packed market today.
The 37-year-old Algerian shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ – Arabic for ‘God is the Greatest’ – as the bloodbath unfolded in Mulhouse, in the east of the country, on Saturday afternoon. Soon afterwards, President Emmanuel Macron said: ‘There is no doubt that this was an Islamist terrorist attack’. He expressed ‘the solidarity of the nation’ with those attacked, and their families.
Mr Macron said specialist prosecutors were investigating the attack, which took place in a covered market at around 4pm, close to a demonstration against the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The attacker was unhurt, and later arrested by other officers, before being taken to a secure police station, where he remained on Saturday evening. The dead man was later identified as a 69-year-old from Portugal. He was a ‘passer-by’ in the market, and ‘the first to be attacked,’ said an investigating source. Earlier claims that he was a plain clothes police officer were discounted.
The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office announced the opening of an investigation for ‘murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise’.
Nicolas Heitz, the Mulhouse prosecutor, said the so-far unidentified man who died had been stabbed in the throat, as had a municipal police officer who was in intensive care.
The arrested man, who also remained unidentified publicly, was on a file containing suspects said to have been ‘radicalised as terrorists,’ said Mr Heitz. He did not have settled status in France, and was due to be deported, having been convicted in the past of ‘showing sympathy for terrorism’.
Michèle Lutz, the Mayor of Mulhouse, said: ‘Horror has just gripped our city. A man attacked passers-by at the covered canal market with a knife, several municipal police officers who intervened to arrest him were also injured.’
Three other municipal policemen were also wounded in the attack, including two parking control officers.
Another investigating source said: ‘The man was attending a police station to sign his judicial control form connected with his house arrest. He refused to do this, and instead attacked a number of people with a knife.’
The attack unfolded by the Market Square and canal in the middle of Mulhouse, when it was packed with shoppers.
It follows a series of bomb, gun and knife attacks carried out by Islamic State and al-Qaeda operatives across France.
By Saturday night, the market was closed off and surrounded by forensics officers. Soldiers and special forces police with guns drawn were being used to secure the area.
French prime minister Françoise Bayrou said on X: ‘Fanaticism has struck again and we are in mourning. My thoughts naturally go to the victims and their families, with the firm hope that the wounded will recover. Congratulations to the police for their rapid intervention.’
The prime minister received an immediate reply from a Municipal Police account which read: ‘Mr. Prime Minister Bayrou, it is high time to move from words to actions. Our colleagues must be armed throughout France to fully ensure their mission of protecting citizens and their own security. Inaction is no longer an option.’
The deadliest single terrorist attack ever in the country came in November 2015 when 130 people were killed during one night in Paris. Suicide bombers pledging allegiance to ISIS targeted the Stade de France, cafés, restaurants and the Bataclan music venue, where 90 died.
Earlier in 2015, two Paris-born gunmen linked to Al-Qaeda broke into the offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine, leaving 17 people dead inside and three outside.
In July 2016, 86 people were called and more than 400 injured when a 19 tonne truck was deliberately driven into crowds on the seafront promenade at Nice, on the Mediterranean coast.
During the same month, two Isis terrorists murdered an 86-year-old Catholic priest during a church service in Normandy.
And in October 2020, three people were stabbed to death by a Tunisian immigrant in the Notre Dame basilica in Nice.
There have been frequent knife attacks on the forces of law and order, leading to the deaths of serving police.
Terrorists have also targetted teachers, such as Samuel Paty, who was decapitated in the greater Paris suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine in 2020.
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