One person has been killed and several police officers injured in a knife attack in France that president Emmanuel Macron described as “Islamist terrorism”.
A man shouting "Allahu Akbar" ("God is greatest") launched the attack at a crowded market in the eastern city of Mulhouse on Saturday afternoon, France's anti-terrorism prosecutor's office said.
A 37-year-old Algerian man was arrested, according to the prosecutors’ office, which is investigating the stabbings. The suspect had been on a list of people flagged for radicalism, the regional prosecutor added. The interior minister described him as an Islamic extremist with a schizophrenic profile.
The victim was a 69-year-old Portuguese man, the anti-terrorism prosecutor's office said, while those wounded were police officers who intervened. The three injured included a parking control officer stabbed in the aorta and torso who remained in hospital, interior minister Bruno Retailleau told reporters at the scene, with the other two suffering lighter injuries.
Retailleau said the attacker was armed with a knife and screwdriver.
Mr Macron called the knifeman “an Islamic extremist”, saying: "It is without any doubt an act of Islamist terrorism."
The government had "complete determination" to respond to the attack, he said, as he also expressed “the solidarity of the nation” with the victims and their loved ones.
He said specialist prosecutors were investigating the attack, which happened at around 4pm in a covered market by the Market Square and canal in the middle of Mulhouse, an area packed with shoppers at the time, near the borders with Germany and Switzerland.
The attacker, who has not been identified by authorities, was reportedly unhurt, and later arrested, before being taken to a secure police station, where he remained on Saturday evening.
Michele Lutz, mayor of Mulhouse, said: “Horror has just gripped our city.”
French prime minister Francois Bayrou wrote on social media: “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.”
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.
It follows a series of bomb, gun and knife attacks carried out by Islamic State and al-Qaeda operatives across France, that have left the country on high alert for extremist threats.
The suspect arrived in France without papers in 2014, and was arrested and convicted of glorifying terrorism in the wake of the 7 October, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, Retailleau said.
After several months in prison for that conviction, the suspect was confined to house arrest as authorities sought to expel him to Algeria. Retailleau lashed out at Algeria for resisting the return of criminals France is seeking to deport.
Tensions have grown in recent months between France and Algeria – which shook off French rule after a brutal war 60 years ago – over the return of Algerians accused of inciting violence or other crimes in France as well as diplomatic disputes.
Retailleau noted Islamic extremist attacks recently in Germany and other countries, and insisted France has made "immense progress" since a wave of attacks in 2015 and 2016 linked to the Islamic State group and al-Qaeda.
