A man suspected of killing one person and injuring two more with a knife and hammer near the Eiffel Tower has been arrested by French police.
The attack in central Paris took place on Saturday night at Bir Hakeim, which is near the famed tower, according to France’s Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin.
Darmanin spoke with reporters, providing more details on the attack, noting that the man taken into custody was a French citizen who intelligence agencies were aware of as he has “serious psychiatric disorders.”
The man killed was a German tourist born in the Philippines, according to German officials.
“Shocking news from Paris,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock posted online. “My thoughts are with the friends and family of the young German who was killed in the suspected Islamist attack. Almost his entire life lay ahead of him. Hate and terror have no place in Europe.”
Of the two injured was a British National, according to the UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office.
Both of those injured sustained non-life-threatening injuries.
Darmanin was subdued by an officer who used a taser at the scene. He said that the suspect’s life was not at risk.
“After his arrest, he said he could no longer bear to see Muslims dying in both Afghanistan and Palestine,” Darmanin said.
Darmanin told reporters that the suspect, born in 1997, was previously sentenced to four years in prison in 2016 after he was found to be planning “violent action.”
During the assault, the suspect was said to be yelling “Allahu Akbar,” police later shared.
France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, has since called the incident a terror attack, noting that the government’s anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office would investigate.
“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. “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.”