France: One killed in Mulhouse knife attack; Macron condemns "Islamist terror act"

Paris [France], February 23 (ANI): One person was killed, and several others were left wounded in a knife attack at a town market in eastern France, in what French authorities have described as an act of terror, CNN reported. 

According to CNN, the attacker shouted “Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest) while targeting several municipal police officers as well as a passerby, the prosecutor’s office said. A civilian has died, and three officers are injured.

The suspect was later arrested and is currently in police custody, the office of France’s national anti-terror prosecutor confirmed in a press release.

“Horror has just gripped our city. A man attacked passers-by at the cvered canal market with a knife, several municipal police officers who intervened to neutralize him were also injured,” Mulhouse town mayor Michèle Lutz said in a statement Saturday on Facebook.

The 37-year-old suspect is from Algeria, according to France's interior ministry.

French President Emmanuel Macron strongly condemned the incident, describing it as “no doubt, an Islamic terrorist act, given the terrorist’s words," as reported by CNN.

He also expressed condolences to the victim’s family, adding that France’s national anti-terror prosecutor is looking into the case.

French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said that the suspect had previously been convicted for apology of terrorism – the crime of speaking positively of a terror act or group. He would have been deported to Algeria, but the country refused to accept him, Retailleau added.

“Once again, it is Islamist terrorism that has struck! And it is the migratory disorders that are at the origin of this act, Retailleau wrote on X. Retailleau, a member of the right-wing party “Les Républicains,” and is currently campaigning to be elected as party president. (ANI)