Terror returns to Paris: the cry of ‘Allah Akbar’ resounded tonight before 10pm right under the Eiffel Tower: an assault on tourists, a German born in the Philippines who was killed and his partner injured, with hammer blows and knife, as well as a man who attempted to defend them. The person taking action was a Frenchman born in France but – apparently – of Syrian origins and registered as S, i.e. “at risk of radicalisation” and with psychiatric problems.
Arrested by the police who stopped him using a “taser” gun after a chase, he said he “couldn’t stand it anymore about the Muslims who die in Afghanistan and Palestine”, according to what was reported by the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who is in Doha, is in contact with Darmanin. According to the first news leaked from police sources, the attacker is 26 years old, born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a chic residential suburb of Paris, but lives in nearby Puteaux. His name is Armand Rajabpour-Miyandoab and in his criminal record – in addition to being classified as at risk of Islamic radicalization – there is also a previous arrest in 2016 with a subsequent sentence of 4 years in prison because he was preparing an attack similar to the one tonight at La Défense , the business district of Paris.
According to witnesses, the man used a hammer with which he violently hit his victim, a German tourist who was walking on the Quai de Grenelle near the Bir-Hakeim Bridge, overlooking the Eiffel Tower. The evening, cold but with a starry sky, favored the presence of thousands of people on the banks of the Seine between the Eiffel Tower on the left bank and the Trocadero on the right bank.
The attacker was chased for a long time by the police, warned by passers-by. He was spotted and subsequently surrounded, with the policemen who-according to Darmanin-resorted to a Taser gun «since the man had his hands in his pockets as if he had explosives». At the moment the investigation has been entrusted to the Paris criminal police and not to the anti-terrorism department, which however could be involved in the case in the next few hours.