Report: Afghan National Goes on Stabbing Rampage in Paris, Injures 7
An Afghan national is implicated in a knife attack in Paris that injured seven, the BBC reports.
The attack happened just before 11 p.m. local time Sunday by a suspect wielding a knife and a metal bar.
“People playing a French ball-throwing game — pétanque — nearby, threw balls at the attacker to try to stop him,” the BBC reported.
The news agency said the man, said to be Afghan, was later arrested. The incident is currently not being treated as a terrorist attack.
The BBC cites police reports as indicating the man initially stabbed two men and a woman near the MK2 cinema on the quai de Loire, along the Ourcq canal.
Paris knife attack leaves 7 wounded https://t.co/ILfEg4xgkg pic.twitter.com/3AKQTLhNDm
— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 10, 2018
“There were around 20 people chasing him. They started throwing pétanque balls at him,” witness Youssef Najah said.
The witness said he saw a man with a knife roughly 10-11 inches long running along the canal.
“Around four or five balls hit him in the head, but they weren’t able to stop him,” Najah said.
After that, the suspect allegedly attacked two British tourists.
“Our consular staff are assisting two British people who have been hospitalised in Paris, and are in contact with French medical staff who are treating them,” the British embassy there said.
“At this stage, there is nothing to indicate that it could be a terrorist attack,” police sources said.
The BBC notes that while France has seen several knife attacks over the past few months, few have resulted in investigations of terrorism.
In August, a man stabbed his mother and sister to death and seriously injured another individual in an attack near Paris, the Toronto Sun reported. While the man had serious mental health issues, he had also come to the attention of authorities for showing public support for terrorism in the past.
A Chechen-born man stabbed one individual to death and injured several others while yelling “Allahu akbar” during another attack in Paris in May, Politico reports.
Apparently, if you make guns hard to buy, people are still able to find weapons. Who would have ever thought?
While we don’t know the exact reason behind these attacks, it doesn’t precisely take a genius to note that they’re happening with unusual frequency in a country that’s seen an uptick in terrorism. The country has also seen a disruption from an influx of refugees from the Middle East and North Africa over the past few years.
One hopes that whatever the cause, France is able to confront it — and, if it is terrorism, deal with it appropriately as opposed to sweeping it under the rug.
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