TheLittleTwentieth – Renowned Papers Edition, AI Infused

Local sources from France: Le Point, Le Télégramme.
UK coverage: BBC.

On Saturday evening, a shooting near the Eiffel Tower in Paris left one person dead and two others injured. The incident is being treated as a potential terrorist attack, and the national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office has taken over the investigation. The motive behind the shooting is not yet clear, but authorities are working to determine the circumstances and bring justice to the French people.

The assailant, Armand Rajabpour-Miyandoab, a Frenchman born in 1997 to Iranian parents, was arrested shortly after the incident and placed in custody. He attacked a German man born in 1999 with a knife and assaulted two other people with a hammer near the Bir Hakeim bridge over the Seine. The Pnat stated to AFP that they have opened an investigation for murder and attempted murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise, as well as for participation in a criminal terrorist organization.

The attacker, known for radical Islamism and psychiatric issues, shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is great) at the time of the attack, according to a police source. He reportedly told the arresting officers that he “could no longer bear to see Muslims die, both in Afghanistan and Palestine” and also stated that he was “angry” about “what was happening in Gaza” and that France would be “complicit in what Israel was doing” there, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said during a press briefing at the scene.

Investigators will look into the assailant’s medical history, as he is described as a man with a “very unstable, highly influenced” profile, according to a security source cited by AFP. “Whether he was receiving the necessary medical follow-up as he should have been and as he was at one point, that is a question that will arise,” said a police source to AFP.

This man had already been arrested in 2016 by the General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI) for a violent action project in La Défense, west of Paris. He had been sentenced to five years in prison and was released after four years of detention, according to the source.

Armand Rajabpour-Miyandoab, who lived with his parents in Essonne according to Gérald Darmanin, posted a video claiming responsibility for his attack on social media, confirmed by police and security sources to AFP. In the video, the assailant mentions “current events, the government, the murder of innocent Muslims,” detailed the security source. At this stage, investigators do not know when the video was filmed, but it was posted online “simultaneously” with the act, according to the source.

The deceased victim is a German tourist, according to Gérald Darmanin. “The attack took place shortly after 9 pm between the Quai de Grenelle and Bir Hakeim, the assailant targeted a couple of tourists,” the Interior Minister reported. “The man died from stab wounds” and the attacker “assaulted the woman of this German tourist,” but she was saved “thanks to a taxi driver who witnessed the scene.”

The assailant then crossed the bridge. Pursued by the police, he apparently attacked two other people whose lives are not in danger: one person was injured by a hammer blow to the eye and another person was particularly “shaken,” according to Gérald Darmanin’s account. The two injured individuals are a Frenchman in his sixties and a foreign tourist, he added. The nationality of the latter has not been specified at this stage.

Emmanuel Macron spoke with Gérald Darmanin on the phone from Doha, before departing for France, to be informed about the attack, according to sources close to the president. “I extend my condolences to the family and loved ones of the German citizen who died tonight in the terrorist attack in Paris and think with emotion of the currently injured and being cared for,” Macron wrote on X.

“We will not give in to terrorism,” Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne affirmed on X. “My thoughts go to the victim, the injured, and their families. I salute the courage and professionalism of our law enforcement and emergency services mobilized,” she further wrote.

Numerous reactions poured in during the evening. “Once again, terrorism has struck on our soil, in the heart of Paris. I offer my full support to the victims and their families,” said Assembly President Yaël Braun-Pivet. Valérie Pécresse, President of the Ile-de-France region, expressed her “thoughts for the deceased person and the injured.” “Full transparency must be achieved regarding this attack in the heart of Paris,” she added.

The attack comes less than two months after the one in Arras that claimed the life of a teacher in mid-October and led to the raising of the Vigipirate security level to the maximum “emergency attack” level.