A German tourist is dead and two others are injured after a man shouted "Allahu Akbar," Arabic for "God is greatest," as he attacked them near the Eiffel Tower in Paris, French officials said.
The suspect, a 26-year-old French man born to Iranian parents, was known to police and being treated for mental illness, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said after the attack Saturday evening, France 24 reported.
When he was arrested, the suspect told police that he was angry over the situations facing Muslims in Afghanistan and the Gaza Strip and that France is an "an accomplice to what Israel is doing" as the Israeli Defense Forces fight to end Hamas in Gaza following an attack on Oct. 7, Darmanin also said.
The man had already been sentenced to four years in prison in 2016 for plotting another attack in Paris, which he did not carry out.
The attacker used a knife and a hammer when going after civilians on Saturday before police used a taser to neutralize him, officials said.
French officials have taken a hardline against terrorism after the Oct. 7 attack in Israel, which saw approximately 1,200 people killed and 240 others kidnapped. Days after the attack in Israel, a French teacher was fatally stabbed by an attacker reportedly screaming "Allahu Akbar." In response, French President Emmanuel Macron ordered officials to review records of radicalized foreigners for potential deportation.
"We will not give in to terrorism. Never," French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne wrote on X, formerly Twitter, after the latest attack.
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