A man restrained by bystanders after allegedly stabbing three women in Paris on Monday reportedly told the crowd holding him down, “it is Allah who commanded me,” according to French media reports on the incident.
The attack comes just days after a separate stabbing in England and a vehicle-ramming attack on a Pride parade in Berlin, adding to a string of violent incidents across Europe in recent weeks.
A 31-year-old man, whose identity had not been released, was seen pinned to the ground after allegedly attacking three women, one of whom was reportedly pregnant. French outlet Le Figaro reported the suspect’s comment attributing the attack to Allah, with police sources describing him to the paper as having an unstable profile.
Despite widespread speculation online pointing to Islamist terrorism, French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez urged caution regarding the motive behind the violence, pointing instead to what he called incoherent remarks from the suspect.
Read more: US: Two men stabbed in NY, suspect yelled “Allahu Akbar” during both incidents (with video)
Additional exchanges captured at the scene, translated from French, show onlookers reacting with disbelief and anger, with one bystander dismissing the suspect’s invocation of Allah and others expressing shock at the randomness of the assault. One woman could reportedly be heard saying the man had stabbed someone close to her.
The attack took place at the Two Domes brewery in the Porte de Clichy area of the French capital. According to local press, two of the three victims were listed in absolute emergency condition, the most severe classification, while the third was in relative emergency condition. Reuters said it had verified footage showing the suspect stabbing one of the women while holding a knife in each hand.
The Paris incident comes two days after six men were arrested on suspicion of murder in connection with the fatal stabbing of a 22-year-old man in Clapham, southwest London, an attack that occurred in the early morning hours last Saturday, according to London’s Metropolitan Police.
It also follows a deadly attack in Berlin, where a suspect, later killed by German police, allegedly drove a vehicle into a crowd at a public Pride gathering, killing one person and injuring 29 others. That suspect, identified as Abdul Ballout, held German citizenship but had Lebanese roots, according to the Associated Press, which reported that German authorities are examining whether the attack constituted an act of Islamic extremism.
Read more about this topic: Suspect in LGBTQ+ march attack identified as Islamic State sympathizer (with video)
The series of attacks follows a National Security Strategy released by the White House months earlier, which warned of what it described as civilizational erasure across Europe tied to mass migration and shifting demographics, citing a series of terror attacks carried out by migrants.
The administration’s strategy referenced various European data points, including estimates on the cost of asylum migration in the Netherlands, the financial impact of illegal immigration in France, and disproportionate rates of violent crime attributed to non-Western migrants in Denmark and Germany.
The immigration status of the suspects involved in the three most recent attacks had not been confirmed as of Monday.
