Paris stabbing attack: One killed, two others wounded near Eiffel Tower

A German man was killed while two others were wounded Saturday night in a stabbing attack on Quai de Grenelle, a street in central Paris, near the Eiffel Tower, the BBC reported.

The stabbing attack, involving the use of a knife and hammer, occurred shortly before 21:00 local time (20:00 GMT). The authorities have subsequently arrested a 26-year-old French national suspect known to security services.

Meanwhile, anti-terrorism prosecutors have begun an investigation into the incident.

Officials said that the man killed in the stabbing attack, who they confirmed to be a German national, was accompanied by his wife when attacked. However, his wife remained unharmed after a taxi driver intervened and saved her, according to French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin.

Darmanin also said that the suspect fled across a bridge spanning the River Seine.

The man then attacked two more people — a Frenchman aged around 60 and a foreign tourist — hitting one in the eye with a hammer.

The police Tasered and arrested the suspect on suspicion of assassination — defined under French law as pre-meditated murder — and attempted assassination concerning a terrorist enterprise.

Both wounded people were found to be in a non-life-threatening condition as they were treated by emergency services.

Darmanin said the alleged attacker was heard shouting "Allahu Akbar", Arabic for "God is greatest", and told police he was upset because "so many Muslims are dying in Afghanistan and in Palestine".

According to Darmanin, the suspect — whose history included mental health issues — was on the watchlist of the French security services and had served four years in prison after being found guilty of plotting another attack in 2016.

Soon after the incident, a video was posted on social media in which the suspect criticised the French government and discussed what he described as the murder of innocent Muslims, AFP reported.

French President Emmanuel Macron sent his thoughts to all those affected by the "terrorist attack" and thanked the emergency services for their response.

"The national anti-terrorist prosecutor's office will now be responsible for shedding light on this affair so that justice can be done in the name of the French people," he said.

The incident follows another knife attack that killed a teacher at a high school in the northern city of Arras, two months ago, prompting the French government to put the country on its highest level of national security alert.