A knife attack occurred in the eastern French city of Mulhouse, resulting in one death and serious injuries to two police officers. French President Emmanuel Macron has characterized the incident as an "Islamist terrorist act." Prosecutors stated that three other police officers sustained minor injuries in the attack, which took place shortly before 4 p.m. local time on Saturday.
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02-24, 2025Prosecutor Nicolas Heitz stated that the attacker was a 37-year-old man who had previously been placed on a terrorism prevention watch list and is currently in custody. Of the two seriously injured police officers, one suffered an injury to the carotid artery, and the other suffered a chest wound. Interior Minister Bruno Le Roux later stated that French authorities had repeatedly attempted to extradite the suspect, but his country of origin, Algeria, refused to accept him.
The French National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office (PNAT) has taken over the investigation of the case. The department stated that the suspect first attacked municipal police officers, shouting "Allahu Akbar" – an Arabic phrase meaning "God is the greatest." Witnesses told Agence France-Presse that the suspect repeatedly shouted this phrase. The PNAT said in a statement that a civilian passerby who intervened suffered fatal injuries. The Mulhouse prosecutor stated that the deceased was a 69-year-old Portuguese national.
President Macron stated that there was no doubt that the incident was an "Islamist terrorist act." The government is determined to continue "doing everything possible to eradicate terrorism from our soil." The terrorism watch list, known as FSPRT, compiles personal data from various departments and aims to prevent "terrorist" radicalization. The list was launched after the deadly attacks on the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket in 2015.
At the time of the attack, a demonstration in support of the Democratic Republic of Congo was taking place in a busy area of Mulhouse. Police established a security perimeter after the attack. Military units were dispatched to the scene to provide support, and forensic scientists are searching for evidence, racing against time to examine bloodstains before they are washed away by rain. The suspect, born in Algeria, had been under judicial supervision and house arrest, and had a deportation order from France. Interior Minister Le Roux stated that the 37-year-old man arrived in France in 2014 without official immigration documents and was arrested and convicted of condoning terrorism after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. The Interior Minister said that police experts "detected schizophrenic traits" in the suspect.
After spending several months in prison for that crime, the suspect was placed under house arrest as authorities attempted to deport him to Algeria. Le Roux also told French broadcaster TF1 that France had tried to deport him 10 times, but Algeria had refused to accept him each time.
