French police on Friday arrested a man suspected of stabbing three women in the Paris metro as the capital’s end-of-year festivities were in full swing, prosecutors said.
The three victims were attacked at three different locations along the Line 3 metro track that runs across central Paris, the RATP authority that runs the transit service said.
An Agence France-Presse journalist at the Republique Station saw a security team treating a woman who had been wounded in the leg and appeared to be in a state of shock.
Photo: AFP
The attacks happened between 4:15pm and 4:45 pm at the stations Republique and Arts et Metiers — both next to the Marais district — and the Opera Station, the RATP said.
“The victims were quickly taken care of by the emergency services,” it said.
Paris police said two of the women attacked were treated by the emergency services and taken to hospital, but they were not in critical condition.
A third woman turned up at hospital seeking treatment, they added.
Police used surveillance camera footage and mobile-tracking tools to locate the 25-year-old suspected attacker in the Val d’Oise region north of Paris, prosecutors said.
“Activating the geolocation of his mobile phone led to his arrest late afternoon in Val d’Oise,” they said. “The police are on site. Back-up security teams have been deployed to reinforce safety on the line.”
Transport police have opened an investigation into attempted homicide and assault with a weapon.
The French Ministry of the Interior said the man was a Malian citizen who had been imprisoned in January last year for aggravated theft and sexual assault convictions, and had been required to leave France after being released in July.
The man had been placed in an administrative detention center, but failure to obtain a consular travel document required for his deportation had meant he was released after 90 days, as required by law, it said.
Minister of the Interior Laurent Nunez “regrets that the deportation of the suspect could not be carried out” and assured that “efforts are continuing to prioritise the deportation of undocumented foreigners who have committed public order offences,” the ministry said.
Paris police chief Patrice Faure paid tribute to “the reactivity and the mobilization” of the investigators that led to the arrest of the suspect.
Police arrested him at 6:55pm, less than three hours after the first attack, he said.
Nunez congratulated the different police services involved in tracking down the suspect.
European capitals are especially vigilant during the end-of-year period for any violent incidents, given recent attacks and plots targeting festive or religious gatherings.
The death of a former head of China’s one-child policy has been met not by tributes, but by castigation of the abandoned policy on social media this week. State media praised Peng Peiyun (彭珮雲), former head of China’s National Family Planning Commission from 1988 to 1998, as “an outstanding leader” in her work related to women and children. The reaction on Chinese social media to Peng’s death in Beijing on Sunday, just shy of her 96th birthday, was less positive. “Those children who were lost, naked, are waiting for you over there” in the afterlife, one person posted on China’s Sina Weibo platform. China’s
‘POLITICAL LOYALTY’: The move breaks with decades of precedent among US administrations, which have tended to leave career ambassadors in their posts US President Donald Trump’s administration has ordered dozens of US ambassadors to step down, people familiar with the matter said, a precedent-breaking recall that would leave embassies abroad without US Senate-confirmed leadership. The envoys, career diplomats who were almost all named to their jobs under former US president Joe Biden, were told over the phone in the past few days they needed to depart in the next few weeks, the people said. They would not be fired, but finding new roles would be a challenge given that many are far along in their careers and opportunities for senior diplomats can
RUSHED: The US pushed for the October deal to be ready for a ceremony with Trump, but sometimes it takes time to create an agreement that can hold, a Thai official said Defense officials from Thailand and Cambodia are to meet tomorrow to discuss the possibility of resuming a ceasefire between the two countries, Thailand’s top diplomat said yesterday, as border fighting entered a third week. A ceasefire agreement in October was rushed to ensure it could be witnessed by US President Donald Trump and lacked sufficient details to ensure the deal to end the armed conflict would hold, Thai Minister of Foreign Affairs Sihasak Phuangketkeow said after an ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting in Kuala Lumpur. The two countries agreed to hold talks using their General Border Committee, an established bilateral mechanism, with Thailand
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday announced plans for a national bravery award to recognize civilians and first responders who confronted “the worst of evil” during an anti-Semitic terror attack that left 15 dead and has cast a heavy shadow over the nation’s holiday season. Albanese said he plans to establish a special honors system for those who placed themselves in harm’s way to help during the attack on a beachside Hanukkah celebration, like Ahmed al-Ahmed, a Syrian-Australian Muslim who disarmed one of the assailants before being wounded himself. Sajid Akram, who was killed by police during the Dec. 14 attack, and
RSS