Investigation into suspected ‘terrorist plot’ opened after deadly Paris knife attack

The attack close to the Eiffel Tower during a busy weekend came with the country on its highest alert, as tensions rise against the background of the war between Israel and Hamas, Report informs referring to France24.

Prosecutors specializing in terrorist incidents told AFP they had opened a probe into the attacker, who was identified as a French national born in 1997 to Iranian parents. The man was arrested soon after the knife and hammer attack.

Prosecutors suspect him of murdering a 23-year-old man, identified as a German-Filipino citizen by a judicial source.

He will further be probed for attempted murder against the two wounded people, a 66-year-old British citizen and a 60-year-old French national, "in connection with a terrorist plot".

The attacker, known to authorities and in treatment for mental illness, shouted "Allahu Akbar" – Arabic for "God is greatest" – at the moment of the attack, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said at the scene by Bir Hakeim bridge over the River Seine.

The man, who lived with his parents in the Essonne region south of Paris, told police he could not stand Muslims being killed in "Afghanistan and Palestine" and accused France of being "an accomplice to what Israel is doing" in the Gaza Strip, Darmanin added.