One person was killed and two others were injured as a result of an attack on passers-by in the center of Paris near the Eiffel Tower.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin announced this on social networks.
— The police have just courageously arrested an attacker on passers-by in Paris, in the area of the Quai Grenelle. One dead and one injured were treated by the Paris fire brigade. Please avoid the area,” the minister wrote on social network X, formerly known as Twitter.
At the same time, French media reported two wounded.
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Darmanen subsequently reported that the attacker had been arrested.
AFP, citing a source, reported that the suspect shouted “Allahu Akbar” (“God is great”). However, this has not yet been confirmed by the French authorities.
What is known about the attacker
BFMTV reported that the attacker was Armand R., a Frenchman born in 1997 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, who was known to French law enforcement as a radical Islamist and had “serious psychiatric problems.”
“After his arrest, he said that he could no longer see how Muslims were dying in Afghanistan and Palestine,” Gerald Darmanin told reporters upon arrival at the scene.
According to Darmanen, he was sentenced to four years in prison in 2016 for already wanting to commit a violent act.
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At this stage, the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office is assessing the situation and has not yet taken up the investigation.
The incident, which occurred on Saturday night in central Paris, comes less than eight months before the French capital hosts the Olympic Games and could raise questions about security at the global sporting event.
Paris is planning an unprecedented opening ceremony on the Seine River that could attract up to 600,000 spectators.
