On Monday a 40-year-old man was arrested by French authorities after he stabbed an on-duty soldier at the Gare de l’Est station in northern Paris.
The attack came just two weeks ahead of the start of the Olympic Games in the capital city. The soldier suffered a knife wound between the shoulder blades and was out of danger, said Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin on social media.
According to the media reports, the suspect has now been placed in psychiatric care. Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu paid tribute to the injured soldier, saying, ‘Thoughts to the soldier injured tonight at the Gare de l’Est” in a post on X.
Notably, the soldier was part of a special military operation unit deployed around sensitive areas in Paris following the 2015 Islamist attacks on the satirical Charlie Hebdo newspaper.
Public prosecutors are probing the case as attempted murder as they seek to establish the circumstances and the motivation. The man, born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, became a French national in 2006, according to police sources.
According to the media sources, the man attacked the soldier as the French military kills people in his country. At the moment of the attack, he shouted ‘God is great’ in French, according to the media reports.
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