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French police detain man suspected of stabbing soldier in Paris

  • The suspect is a 40-year-old born in the Democratic Republic of Congo who obtained French nationality in 2006

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Armed French soldiers patrol at the Gare de l’Est train station in Paris. The attack at the station came less than two weeks before the start of the Olympic Games in the French capital. Photo: EPA-EFE
Agence France-Presse

A man was arrested on Monday over the stabbing of an on-duty soldier in Paris, with the suspect known to police for a 2018 murder that saw him sent to a psychiatric unit.

The attack at the Gare de l’Est station in northern Paris came less than two weeks before the start of the Olympic Games in the French capital.

The soldier’s life was not in danger, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on social media platform X, while a police source said he had suffered a knife wound “between the shoulder blades”.

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The 40-year-old suspect was arrested by other soldiers on patrol while the wounded man was taken to hospital “conscious”, the source said.

The man has been placed in psychiatric care, a police source said on Tuesday.

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A security perimeter was erected on one side of the station in the wake of the stabbing, an AFP journalist said, with police still present around midnight (2200 GMT) some two hours after the incident.

People walk past French police and Spanish Guardia Civil officers guarding the entrance of the Gare de l’Est train station in Paris, where a French soldier fell victim to a knife attack. Photo: EPA-EFE
People walk past French police and Spanish Guardia Civil officers guarding the entrance of the Gare de l’Est train station in Paris, where a French soldier fell victim to a knife attack. Photo: EPA-EFE
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