OAN’s Elizabeth Volberding
10:22 AM – Monday, December 4, 2023
One person was fatally stabbed and two others suffered severe injuries after a man attacked tourists near the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France.
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On Saturday evening, France’s Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin announced the brutal attack.
According to Darmanin, police immediately arrested the man, who is a 26-year-old French national, using a taser stun gun.
The suspect has been identified in French media as Armand R., a 26-year-old French national with Iranian parents.
One of the victims, who was a male German tourist, was murdered in the attack. Two others endured non-life threatening wounds, Darmanin added.
The suspect murdered a German national at the Quai de Grenelle, which is just a few blocks from the Eiffel Tower. Later, he attacked a vacationing couple with a knife at around 9:00 p.m. local time.
After being chased by authorities, the man used a hammer to attack two more people before being arrested and taken into custody.
One of those injured was a British national, according to the United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office.
The other injured victim was French, according to a spokesperson for the anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office.
Darmanin additionally mentioned that the suspect had previously been sentenced to four years in prison in 2016, due to planning “violent action[s].”
“After his arrest, he said he could no longer bear to see Muslims dying in both Afghanistan and Palestine,” Darmanin stated.
According to Darmanin, intelligence services were aware that the suspect had “serious psychiatric disorders.”
The minister also claimed that during the attack, the attacker had allegedly yelled “Allahu Akbar,” an Arabic phrase meaning “God is Greatest,” according to police.
President Emmanuel Macron of France declared the event to be a terrorist attack and announced that the office of France’s anti-terrorism prosecutor would investigate further.
“I send all my condolences to the family and loved ones of the German national who died this evening,” Macron wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Sunday. “The national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office now will be responsible for shedding light on this matter so that justice can be done in the name of the French people.”
Macron also thanked the French emergency services for their assistance in the attack.
Additionally, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that he was “shocked” by the attack.
“Our thoughts are with the injured, families and friends of the victims. Once again, it is clear why we are resolutely standing up to hatred and terror,” Scholz wrote on X.
Video footage taken at the scene portrayed police vehicles, ambulances, and the Paris Fire Brigade arriving, with heavy traffic being shifted away.
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