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Agence France-Presse

Associated Press

A 19-year-old man was killed and another nine people in France were wounded, three seriously, in a knife attack on Saturday.
The suspect, an asylum seeker from Afghanistan, was armed with a knife and a skewer and carried out the attack in the city of Lyon, southeastern France.
Police have placed him in custody for murder and attempted murder, Lyon prosecutor’s office said.
Investigators said the killer appeared to have psychological problems and had smoked large quantities of cannabis before the knife attack.

He was found in public records with two identities and three different dates of birth, making him either 33, 31 or 27 years’ old, prosecutor Nicolas Jacquet told a press conference in Lyon on Sunday.
During “confused” interviews with police, he said he was a Muslim “who had heard voices saying God had been insulted and instructing him to kill”, Jacquet said, adding that the case was being treated as a criminal, rather than terrorist, incident.
Two of the eight injured victims remained in hospital on Sunday, but none was in intensive care, Jacquet said.

Jacquet paid tribute to three bus drivers and other members of the public who had succeeded in cornering the man and persuading him to drop his knife and a meat skewer before the police arrived on the scene.
“I want to pay tribute to the actions of witnesses. Their courageous and controlled intervention was decisive in ending these criminal acts,” he added.
Prosecutor Jacquet said the knifeman had been first registered in France in 2009 as a minor, but he then travelled to Germany, Norway, Britain and Italy before returning to France in 2016 where he was granted temporary residency rights.
His room in an asylum seekers’ centre near to scene of the stabbings was raided by police on Sunday night.

Villeurbanne Mayor Jean-Paul Bret told reporters the detained man was the primary suspect and the only one suspected in the actual stabbing.
It was unclear if the slain man knew the attacker, local police said.
The attack happened about 4.30pm at a bus stop near the local station in Villeurbanne, a suburb of Lyon.
“There was a man at the 57 (bus stop) who started striking out with a knife in all directions,” a witness said.
“He managed to hit, to open the belly of one person. He stabbed a guy in the head, he cut the ear of a lady and the lady was dying at the bus stop and no one came to help,” she added, sobbing.
French waiter shot dead for making sandwich too slowly, witnesses say
She eventually managed to get the woman on a bus, which closed its doors and drove away from the scene. “There was blood everywhere,” the woman said.
Sofiane, a 17-year-old from the area, said the dead man was one of the first to try to reason with the knifeman.
The killer “stabbed him and then when he fell on the ground, he continued”, Sofiane said.
Of the eight people wounded in the attack, three were in a critical condition, said the prosecutor’s office.
Paramedics treated another 20 people at the scene for shock.

The knife attack on Sunday sparked a row about immigration as the new details about the suspect emerged.
Far-right figurehead Marine Le Pen led criticism of what she termed “the laxness of migration policy” in France which she said was “a serious threat to the safety of French people”.
The mayor of Villeurbanne, Jean-Paul Bret from the Socialist party, accused Le Pen and others on the right and far-right of “exploiting things politically”.
“It’s the classic reaction from the far-right which tries to turn a dramatic event to its advantage,” he told the RTL radio station.
He also reminded Le Pen that offering asylum to people fleeing conflict in places such as Afghanistan was an international duty that France respected.
Why are so many police officers in France taking their own lives?
France remains on high alert after several deadly extremist attacks in 2015 and 2016.
Last May, a parcel bomb in front of a baker’s shop in central Lyon slightly injured 14 people.
The perpetrator, a young radicalised Algerian, who was arrested three days later, pledged allegiance to Islamic State, according to his confession.
Lyon, France’s third-largest city, had until then remained untouched by the wave of jihadist attacks that have killed 251 people in France since 2015.


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France

Suspect who carried out knife attack in France ‘heard voices’ telling him to kill, prosecutor says

A witness is comforted by friends in Villeurbanne, southeastern France. Photo: AFP

Emergency services are at work near a bus in Villeurbanne on the outskirts of Lyon, south-eastern France on August 31, 2019, after a knife attack which has left one dead and six injured. - Two men, one armed with a knife and the other with a skewer, carried out the attack in Villeurbanne in southeastern France, the official said, without giving further details on the motive for the stabbing. (Photo by PHILIPPE DESMAZES / AFP)

A police officer stands guard as people gather in Villeurbanne on the ouskirts of Lyon, south-eastern France on August 31, 2019, after a knife attack which has left one dead and six injured. - Two men, one armed with a knife and the other with a skewer, carried out the attack in Villeurbanne in southeastern France, the official said, without giving further details on the motive for the stabbing. (Photo by PHILIPPE DESMAZES / AFP)

Lyon’s public prosecutor Nicolas Jacquet speaks during a press conference at the high court of Lyon, southeastern France, on September 1, 2019. - A man wielding a skewer and knife went on the rampage in the French city of Lyon on August 31, leaving a 19-year-old man dead and eight others injured, including three critically. A police source said the alleged perpetrator was an Afghan asylum-seeker, unknown previously to both the police and the intelligence services. (Photo by ROMAIN LAFABREGUE / AFP)

French police secure the area after one person was found dead and six others wounded in a suspected knife attack in Villeurbanne, near Lyon, central France, August 31, 2019. REUTERS/Emmanuel Foudrot

Worrying rise in police suicides leaves France confronting taboos around mental health

A French police officer stands guard outside the Notre Dame cathedral. File photo: EPA

Former French boxing champion, Christophe Dettinger (R), is seen during clashes with French Gendarmes at a demonstration by the "yellow vests" on the passerelle Leopold-Sedar-Senghor bridge in Paris, France, January 5, 2019. Picture taken January 5, 2019. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

TOPSHOT - A police officer stands in front of a car which was set on fire by students protesting against French government Education reforms on December 3, 2018 in the north of Paris' suburb of Aubervilliers. (Photo by Thomas SAMSON / AFP)

epa06658775 French police clash with protesters during the eviction of environmental protesters from the ZAD 'Zone A Defendre' (zone to defend) area in Notre-Dame-des-Landes, north of Nantes, France, 10 April 2018. Police are clearing the site from around 250 squatters that have been occupying the area for ten years to block the construction of disputed Notre-Dames-des-Landes airport. The French government on 17 January 2018 announced it would give up the airport project, but the squatters refused to leave. EPA-EFE/THIBAULT VANDERMERSCH

Seven wounded by Paris knifeman, who is chased by crowd hurling petanque balls

Police secure the area after seven people were wounded in knife attack downtown Paris, France, on Sunday. Photo: Reuters

CORRECTION - French police is on the scene where a man attacked and injured people with a knife in the streets of Paris in the 19th arrondissement on September 9, 2018. - Seven people including two British tourists were wounded Sunday in Paris after they were attacked by a man armed with a knife and an iron bar, according to police and other sources. (Photo by Zakaria ABDELKAFI / AFP) / “The erroneous mention[s] appearing in the metadata of this photo by Zakaria ABDELKAFI has been modified in AFP systems in the following manner: [September 9, 2018] instead of [September 9, 2019]. Please immediately remove the erroneous mention[s] from all your online services and delete it (them) from your servers. If you have been authorized by AFP to distribute it (them) to third parties, please ensure that the same actions are carried out by them. Failure to promptly comply with these instructions will entail liability on your part for any continued or post notification usage. Therefore we thank you

France hopeful social media giants Facebook and Snapchat will still sign hate speech pledge after delay

It is hoped companies such as Facebook will sign the charter. Photo: Reuters

(FILES) In this file photo taken on November 14, 2013, the ogo of Snapchat is seen at the front entrance new headquarters of Snapchat in Venice, California. - Snap on August 13, 2019, unveiled new-generation Spectacles sunglasses that can take 3D pictures to share on its Snapchat messaging service known for ephemeral posts. Spectacles 3, set for release late this year, were described as a limited release and priced at $380, more than twice the price of an "Original" version available at the Southern California company's website. (Photo by KEVORK DJANSEZIAN / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)

French waiter shot dead for making sandwich too slowly, witnesses say

Policemen outside the eatery where a waiter was shot dead by a customer allegedly angry at having to wait for a sandwich, in the eastern Paris suburb of Noisy-le-Grand on Saturday. Photo: AFP

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Investigators said the killer appeared to have psychological problems and had smoked large quantities of cannabis before the knife attack
Police have arrested the suspect and placed him in custody for murder and attempted murder



The suspect, who killed one and injured nine in a bus attack, was under the influence of drugs, a Lyon prosecutor said.


Crime