Fatal stabbing puts sharp focus on Paris Olympics

Paris (AP):

A bloodstain by a bridge over the Seine river was the only remaining sign on Sunday of a fatal knife attack 12 hours earlier on a German tourist, allegedly carried out by a young man under watch for suspected Islamic radicalisation.

The random attack near the Eiffel Tower has drawn special concern for the French capital less than a year before it hosts the Olympic Games, with the opening ceremony due to take place along the river in an unprecedented scenic start in the heart of Paris.

After killing the tourist, the suspect crossed the bridge to the city’s Right Bank and wounded two people with a hammer, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Saturday night. The suspect, who apparently cried “Allahu Akbar” (God is great), was arrested.

Video circulating on the Internet showed police officers, weapons drawn, cornering a man dressed in black, his face covered and what appeared to be a knife in his right hand. They twice tasered the suspect before arresting him, Darmanin said.

Questioned by the police, the suspect expressed anguish about Muslims dying, notably in Afghanistan and the Palestinian territories, and claimed that France was an accomplice, Darmanin said.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on X, formerly Twitter, that the news from Paris was “shocking”.

“My thoughts are with the friends and family of the young German man,” she wrote. “Almost his entire life was before him. ... Hate and terror have no place in Europe.”

The French interior minister said the suspect was born in 1997 in Neuilly-Sur-Seine, outside Paris. He had been convicted and jailed for four years, until 2020, for planning violence, was under psychiatric treatment, tracked for suspected Islamic radicalisation, and was on a special list for feared radicals.

The French media widely reported that the man, who lived with his parents in the Essonne region, outside Paris, was of Iranian origin.

The case was turned over to the anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office.