French police have arrested a third suspect, another Sudanese national, in an expanding terror probe after a knife attack in the country’s southeast left two people dead, investigators said yesterday.
The attack in broad daylight on Saturday in the riverside town of Romans-sur-Isere, took place with the country on lockdown to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Prosecutors have launched an investigation into “murder linked to a terrorist enterprise” and “association with terrorist wrongdoers” after the rampage through a string of shops in the town.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The alleged assailant, identified as Abdallah Ahmed-Osman — a Sudanese refugee in his 30s who lives in the town — was arrested without a fight.
Police later arrested a second Sudanese man at Ahmed-Osman’s home — “an acquaintance” of the alleged attacker — and on Saturday night “a young Sudanese man from the same household” as the main suspect, the anti-terror prosecutor’s office said yesterday.
Ahmed-Osman was found by police “on his knees on the pavement praying in Arabic” after the attack, the national anti-terror prosecutor’s office said.
“Anyone who had the misfortune to find themselves in his way were attacked,” Romans-sur-Isere Mayor Marie-Helene Thoraval said.
The suspect first went into a tobacco shop where he attacked the owner and his wife, Thoraval said.
He then went into a butcher’s shop where he seized another knife before heading to the town center and attacking people in the street outside a bakery.
“He took a knife, jumped over the counter, and stabbed a customer, then ran away,” said Ludovic Breyton, the owner of the butcher’s shop. “My wife tried to help the victim, but in vain.”
Five people were injured in the spree. Two were in intensive care, but stable, one was recovering, and two have been discharged from hospital, a source close to the investigation said yesterday.
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