In these virus-plagued times it’s reassuring to know that some things are still normal, like men slashing at innocent people with knives while screaming in Arabic about Allah.
At least two people are dead after just such a knife attack in southeastern France. Three attackers were arrested.
The attack occurred Saturday morning in the town of Romans-sur-Isère, Newsweek reported. Officials confirmed that two people had been killed, according to France 24. At least four others were wounded by an assailant, who targeted people shopping for food, according to Reuters.
One of the assailants, a 33-year-old who has been identified as a Sudanese named Abdallah A.O., was heard shouting “Alluhu Akbar” or “God is great” before lashing out with a blade.
The prosecutor’s office is looking into whether the man had a terrorist motive, though has not yet launched formal proceedings identifying it as a terrorist incident, France 24 reported. The other two arrestees are also Sudenese.
Witnesses told Reuters that a man appeared to be attacking people at random while moving around the town center. According to the Associated Press, the man targeted staff and shoppers in a tobacco shop, a butcher and a grocery as well as in the street.
France is under a nationwide coronavirus stay-at-home order, but grocery stores are allowed to open as an essential service. France 24 noted that there are other bakeries and grocery stores on the street where the attack took place. It is not yet clear whether the attack was in any way linked to the national lockdown.
French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the “odious attack” and said the incident would be fully investigated.
