Four arrested after one killed and several police officers injured in 'terror attack' in France
23 February 2025, 20:06 | Updated: 23 February 2025, 20:08
Four people have been arrested after a deadly stabbing that left several police officers injured in eastern France that authorities linked to Islamic extremism.
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A man attacked people with a knife at a canal market in Mulhouse, near the German border in Eastern France on Saturday afternoon.
The attack, which has left a Portuguese man dead and several others injured, has been called an Islamist terror attack by French President Emmanuel Macron.
Seven police officers were wounded, including a parking control agent admitted to hospital with serious injuries, the prosecutor's office said.
Those detained include the suspected attacker, a 37-year-old Algerian man identified by prosecutors as Brahim A.
The interior minister described him as an Islamic extremist with a schizophrenic profile. Two of his family members and a person who lodged him were also detained, the prosecutor's office said.
Macron said the government has "complete determination" to respond to the attack, which he blamed on ''Islamist terrorism".
The attacker repeatedly said "Allahu akbar", "God is great" in Arabic, the prosecutor said. He was armed with a knife and a screwdriver.
The suspected attacker arrived in France without papers in 2014 and was arrested and convicted of glorifying terrorism in the wake of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, interior minister Bruno Retailleau said on Saturday.
Police experts had "detected a schizophrenic profile" in the suspect, he added.
After several months in prison for that conviction, the suspect was confined to house arrest as authorities sought to expel him to Algeria.
Mr Retailleau criticised Algeria for resisting the return of criminals France is seeking to deport.
The French government will convene a special meeting on Wednesday about immigration in the wake of the attack, foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Sunday.
They will notably study 19 countries "where we have the most difficulty in returning people without papers", Mr Barrot said on Europe-1 radio.
The incident took place in the afternoon, near a covered market. A 69-year-old Portuguese man died while 'intervening' in the attack.
French Prime Minister François Bayrou posted on X that "fanaticism has struck again" and that France is "in mourning."
"My thoughts naturally go to the victims and their families, with the firm hope that the injured will recover," he added, as he extended "Congratulations to the police for their rapid intervention."
