Two dead in what France’s Macron labels ‘odious’ stabbing attack

A man went on a rampage with a knife in a town in southeastern France, killing two people and wounding five in what President Emmanuel Macron has called “an odious act.”

The reasons behind the attack remain unclear although Interior Minister Christophe Castaner spoke of the suspect’s “terrorist journey.”

The assailant, understood to be a refugee from Sudan, was arrested after the attack in the town of Romans-sur-Isere.

Armed with a knife, the suspect went into a tobacco shop where he attacked the owner, town mayor Marie-Helene Thoraval tells AFP.

“His wife got involved and she was wounded as well,” she says.

The assailant then went into a butcher’s shop where he took another knife before heading to the town centre where he entered another store.

“He took a knife, jumped over the counter, and stabbed a customer, then ran away,” the shop owner Ludovic Breyton tells AFP.

“My wife tried to help the victim but in vain.”

According to witnesses cited by the local radio station France Bleu Drome Ardeche, the attacker shouted “Allahu Akbar!” as he attacked his victims.

David Olivier Reverdy, assistant national secretary of the National Police Alliance union, said the assailant had called on police to kill him when they came to arrest him.

“All the ingredients of a terrorist act are there,” he tells BFMTV.

Macron was quick to denounce the attack on Twitter.

“All the light will be shed on this odious act which casts a shadow over our country which has already been hit hard in recent weeks,” he says.

France is in its third week of a lockdown aimed at stemming the spread of the deadly coronavirus.

— AFP