A French man was arrested after stabbing a German tourist and injuring two others with a hammer in central Paris near the Eiffel Tower.

A man armed with a knife and a hammer killed a German tourist and left two people, including a British man, wounded near the Eiffel Tower in Paris in what President Emmanuel Macron called 'a terrorist attack' https://t.co/JaIInoH3CF pic.twitter.com/0C7H11n3lQ

— Reuters (@Reuters) December 4, 2023

French authorities arrested a 26-year-old French man identified as Armand R on the night of December 2nd after killing a German tourist and wounding two others, including a British man, in Bir Hakeim in Paris’s 15th district near the Eiffel Tower.

The victim was a German tourist born in the Philippines who worked as a nurse. French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said the tourist was with his wife when Armand R fatally stabbed the German man on Quai de Grenelle.

A taxi driver then intervened during the incident, saving the life of the victim’s wife. The suspect fled across a nearby bridge spanning the Seine River and attacked two more people with a hammer.

I wouldn’t be going to the Paris Olympics Games next year. This will be a major target for a mass casualty Islamist terrorist attack.

— martydownunder4 (@martydownunder4) December 4, 2023

The two additional victims were a 60-year-old French man and a 66-year-old British man, who was hit in the eye with the hammer. The two victims sustained non-life-threatening injuries and were treated by emergency services. The following day, French Health Minister Aurélien Rousseau told French media that the two injured victims were "in good health.”

Armed French police tasered the suspect twice in the stomach, according to Darmanin. He praised the officers for their quick response and reiterated that “there would doubtless have been other dead” had authorities not acted swiftly.

Armand R, who was known to French intelligence services, was arrested on suspicion of assassination, defined in French law as premeditated murder and attempted assassination in relation to a terrorist enterprise.

Darmanin said the suspect was born in 1997 in Neuilly-Sur-Seine, a suburb of Paris, to Iranian parents. He converted to Islam at age 18 and was arrested in 2016 for “violent action.” The minister told BFM TV that Armand R. had an "acute mental illness" and added that "doctors said on several occasions that he was doing better, was more normal, and could be free.”

He was imprisoned in 2016 after making plans to go to Syria to join the Islamic State (IS). The Interior Minister also said that there was a "failure" in the attacker’s psychiatric treatment. After he was released in 2020, Armand R. was under surveillance for suspected extremism and was undergoing psychiatric treatment.

Prosecutor Jean-François Ricard said that Armand R. had pledged allegiance to ISIS in a video posted on X (previously known as Twitter), and three people close to him, including members of his family, have been detained for questioning. The prosecutor also told reporters that the suspect’s mother "reported concerns about her son's behavior" in late October "as he had turned in on himself.”

Paris attack: Mother of suspect had 'reported concerns', prosecutor says https://t.co/FCPPQxlym1

— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) December 4, 2023

Darmanin said that Armand R. was shouting "Allahu Akbar" (Arabic for "God is greatest") during the attack and added that “after his arrest, he said he could no longer bear to see Muslims dying in both Afghanistan and Palestine.”

The suspect also felt that France was complicit in the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza since Israel declared war on Hamas following a brutal attack that left over a thousand Israelis dead.

French President Emmanuel Macron called the incident a terror attack, sent his condolences to the family of the victim, thanked the French emergency services, and said France’s anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office would investigate.

Diversity!

— William Hung (@JMS_Atlanta) December 3, 2023

“I send all my condolences to the family and loved ones of the German national who died this evening,” Macron wrote in a post on X.

“The national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office now will be responsible for shedding light on this matter so that justice can be done in the name of the French people,” the President added.

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said, “We will not give in to terrorism” after the attack. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also expressed his shock towards the incident.

“Our thoughts are with the injured, families, and friends of the victims. Once again, it is clear why we are resolutely standing up to hatred and terror,” Scholz wrote on X.