Brahim Abdessemed, an Algerian national, is accused of stabbing a man to death and injuring five others while screaming ‘Allahu Akbar’ in a suspected terror attack in Mulhouse, France
France tried to deport a suspected terrorist 10 times before he allegedly stabbed a man to death and seriously wounded police.
Brahim Abdessemed, 37, an Algerian national, was in custody yesterday following the bloodbath in Mulhouse, eastern France, on Saturday afternoon.
President Emmanuel Macron said it was an Islamist terror attack. The knifeman screamed “Allahu Akbar” – Arabic for “God is the greatest” – as he killed a 69-year-old Portuguese civilian and injured five officers.
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said Abdessemed had been on a terror watch-list after being convicted last year of an offence called “apology for terrorism”.
Abdessemed was briefly placed in a custody centre in Mulhouse and then put under house arrest. French authorities say they repeatedly tried to deport him home to North Africa, but Algeria refused.
Mr Retailleau said: “Once again, it is Islamist terrorism that has struck. And, once again, it is the migratory disorders at the origin. On 10 occasions, my staff contacted the Algerian consulate, with neither it, or Algeria generally, ever accepting someone who was born in Algeria.” Mr Retailleau added Abdessemed suffered from psychiatric disorders and was clearly a danger to the public.
France’s National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation into crimes such as murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise. Officials say Abdessemed was on a file containing suspects said to have been radicalised as terrorists.
Michele Lutz, the mayor of Mulhouse, said: “Horror has just gripped our city.”
The attack unfolded at a market in the middle of the city. Two police ended up in intensive care with severe wounds to the throat and chest. Three other officers were also injured. Abdessemed was unhurt. The dead man has not been named.
An investigating source said: “The [attacker] was attending a police station to sign his judicial control form connected with his house arrest. He refused to do this and instead attacked people with a knife.”
It follows a series of bomb, gun and stabbing attacks carried out by Islamic State and al-Qaeda operatives across France.
The deadliest single terrorist attack in the nation was in 2015 when thugs pledging allegiance to IS killed 130 people in one night in Paris, including at the Bataclan music venue.
