Paris hammer attacker 'pledged allegiance to Islamic State' in chilling video

03 December 2023 , 08:17

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French media outlets have identified the attacker as Armand R, who was under pychiatric treatment and was previously jailed for terror offences

The man thought to be responsible for a hammer attack in Paris reportedly pledged his allegiance to Islamic State in a video message and claimed to have carried out the sickening rampage as a response to the slaughter of Muslims in Palestine.

In a two minute video the attacker - who local media have partially identified as Armand R. - tells police that he murdered a German and left two more injured, including a British national, because he "can't stand watching Arabs being killed". He also claimed that France was an accomplice in the killings. Throughout the attack, he is alleged to have shouted "Allahu Akbar", according to France's interior ministry.

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said: "This person was ready to kill others." The attacker went after a German couple with a knife, killing the man and used a hammer to injure two others.

The attacker raises his arms as police close in. He was tasered and taken into police custody, reports say (Twitter)

According to French Police, Armand R. is a 25-year-old French citizen who had previously spent four years in prison for planning a similar attack and was released during 2020. The attacker left prison after four years in 2020 and was under surveillance and undergoing psychiatric treatment, the minister said, painting a brief portrait of the assailant, who was born in Neuilly-Sur-Seine, a Paris suburb. He was most recently living with his parents in the Essonne region, south of Paris.

The fatal attack occurred in the 15th district of the French capital with the assailant using a knife to kill the German tourist, who was not identified. He then crossed the Seine river to the Right Bank and used a hammer to attack the injured. Details about the victims were not immediately known.

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French officials said the attacker was known to police as a radical Islamist with mental health issues (AFP via Getty Images)

The attacker was stopped by police who twice fired a taser at him in the stomach, the minister said, praising the officers for their quick response and reiterating that "there would doubtless have been other dead."

France has been under a heightened terror alert since the fatal stabbing in October of a teacher in the northern city of Arras by a former student – originally from the Ingushetia region in Russia's Caucasus Mountains and suspected of Islamic radicalization. That fatal attack came three years after another teacher was killed outside Paris, beheaded by a radicalised Chechen later killed by police.

The Saturday attack raised the fear level in the French capital, still marked by the 2015 attacks of cafes and a music hall by Islamist radicals that killed 130 people. "We will cede nothing in the face of terrorism. Never," Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said on X, formerly Twitter, sending her condolences to the victims and their families.

Ryan Fahey