At the end of the morning, hall 3 of the Gare de Lyon in Paris was still closed to the public, all access blocked by the soldiers of Operation Sentinel. It is in this vast underground space, connected to the RER and which provides access to all the platforms located on the surface, that three people were attacked this Saturday morning with knives by a 32-year-old Malian national, who was arrested. He was taken into police custody in the evening “following the behavioral examination” which revealed a “psychiatric state incompatible with the measure of restraint”, according to the prosecution.
How did the facts unfold?
The attack occurred around 7:35 a.m. According to the prosecution, the suspect first set fire to his backpack, before attempting to attack a woman with a knife and a hammer, then hitting a man who tried to intervene. Two other passers-by were slightly injured while they and other people tried to control him. “Thank you to those who controlled the perpetrator of this unbearable act,” reacted Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin on X.
The three victims were hospitalized. Late Saturday afternoon, the vital prognosis of the first man who intervened, struck in the abdomen, was still in jeopardy. The Paris police chief, Laurent Nuñez, also spoke on Saturday of a fourth person “very shocked” by the attack.
According to a police source, the suspect “did not shout during his action”. Controlled by several passers-by, he was handed over to the Suge (SNCF railway police) before being arrested by the police. An investigation into attempted murder has been opened
What do we know about the suspect?
Of Malian nationality, he had completely regular Italian residence permits since 2016, which allowed him to travel freely in France. According to a police source, the suspect was until now unknown to the French and Italian police services. The identity papers he presented indicate that he was born on January 1, 1992.
The suspect also spontaneously declared to investigators that he was suffering from “psychiatric disorders” and medication was found on him. According to The Parisian, he had been followed in Italy for almost seven years and would have already been interned – information corroborated by the Italian press. THE Corriere della Sera specifies that he arrived in southern Italy in August 2016, as an asylum seeker. Welcomed by an agricultural cooperative near Turin, he would have been granted a subsidiary protection title in 2018 due to “the context of widespread violence in his region of origin and the fragile conditions linked to a serious pathology”, according to the transalpine daily .
Is this a terrorist attack?
While the first elements converged to say that the man with the “homeless profile” showed “no sign of religiosity”, this is currently not the preferred avenue, even if Laurent Nuñez wanted to be cautious. “We will see if the terrorist trail can be ruled out,” the capital’s police chief declared this Saturday.
Investigators are particularly interested in a TikTok account, which remains to be authenticated, opened in the name of the attacker. We see a black man with glasses, bearded and close-cropped hair, violently reproaching France for its colonial past and its military intervention in Mali. On another video, dated December 2, 2023, the author of the account writes: “RIP [repose en paix, NDLR] in three months, may Allah welcome me into his paradise.”
The investigations must continue with new hearings, as well as the exploitation of video surveillance and telephony. Police custody was lifted in the evening due to his psychiatric condition. “He is therefore currently being cared for by the psychiatric infirmary of the police headquarters,” said the prosecution. The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office had clarified in the morning that it was under observation.
What is the context?
This attack occurred less than six months before the Paris Olympic Games where 15 million visitors are expected in a tense security context.
What reactions?
The attack provoked the reaction of several political figures, who gave their support to the victims and thanked the police. “I am waiting for all light to be shed on the circumstances of this tragedy,” asked the LR president of the Île-de-France region, Valérie Pécresse. This attack “testifies to the urgent need to strengthen security in transport”, underlined in a press release Philippe Tabarot, LR senator for Alpes-Maritimes, who is behind a bill in the Senate on the subject.
The attack is reminiscent of that which occurred on December 2, 2023 near the Eiffel Tower: a 26-year-old Franco-Iranian, radicalized and also monitored for psychiatric problems, attacked three people with a knife and hammer, leaving one dead and two injured.
2024-02-03 21:43:35
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