Islamist Attack In France: Woman Injures Two With Blade In Suspected Lone Wolf Attack

A man and a woman were injured in a small town in southern France yesterday (17 June) as a woman attacked them at a supermarket while chanting ‘Allahu Akbar’, The Telegraph has reported.

The man was struck in the chest with a box-cutter knife during the late-morning attack in La Seyne-sur-Mer, outside Toulon, a Mediterranean port. However, the wound is not life-threatening, Bernard Marchal, prosecutor in the case, told AFP, according to the report. The injured woman was working at the check-out counter of the supermarket.

Marchal initially wished away any Islamic undertones in the attack by saying that the attack appeared to be ‘an isolated one by a person who had mental health concerns’. However, he added that there may be possibilities that she was radicalised. France has been on the jihadist radar ever since 2015 when terrorists attacked the Charlie Hebdo office and killed its editor, Stephane Charbonnier among others.

The attacker, a 24-year-old, has been taken into custody. Police later searched her home to find out whether she had any links with the Islamic State or any other jihadist organisations.

More than 240 people have been killed by jihadis in France ever since the Charlie Hebdo massacre in January 2015.

Last month, a man wielding a knife killed one person and wounded four others while shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ at a bustling Paris neighbourhood on a Saturday night.