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A man carrying two kitchen knives attacked three women in the Porte de Clichy area of northern Paris at about 11:30 a.m. on Monday, July 27. An off-duty police officer detained him at the scene.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez and Paris police said the three women, aged 19, 24 and 36, were taken to hospital. Two were seriously wounded and in critical condition. One was hit in the lower back and the other in the abdomen. Geoffroy Boulard, mayor of the 17th district where the stabbings happened, said on X that one of the three was pregnant.
Bystanders reached the attacker before police did. Kheira Dellabed, a 54-year-old waitress who was washing dishes nearby, said she saw a man walk past with two knives and stab three people. A young man carrying a small suitcase then struck him with the bag and knocked him to the ground, she said, and a waiter from a nearby restaurant pinned him with a chair. The off-duty officer and others held him there until police arrived. Amateur video of the scene shows the two knives lying on a pedestrian crossing.
The suspect's identity was not immediately released. In the video, he can be heard saying he was acting on a command from Allah. Nunez described the man as making incoherent statements and urged caution about drawing conclusions.
"We must obviously remain very cautious regarding the motives behind this extremely violent act," Nunez told reporters.
Paris authorities were still deciding on Monday whether to open a terrorism investigation.
The attack came two days after a man known to German authorities as an Islamic extremist drove a rented minivan into a Pride parade in Berlin, killing one woman and wounding 29. German police shot that suspect dead in Spandau on Sunday after a daylong manhunt.
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