PARIS, France — Four people were in custody Sunday after a deadly stabbing in eastern France that authorities linked to Islamic extremism, according to the national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office.
A Portuguese man was killed in the Saturday attack in the city of Mulhouse, near the border with Germany. Seven police officers were wounded, including a parking control agent hospitalized with grave injuries, the prosecutor’s office said.
Those detained include the suspected assailant, a 37-year-old Algerian man identified by prosecutors as Brahim A. The interior minister described him as an Islamic extremist with a schizophrenic profile. Two of the suspect’s family members and a person who lodged him were also detained, the prosecutor’s office said.
French President Emmanuel Macron said the government has “complete determination” to respond to the attack, which he blamed on ’’Islamist terrorism.″
France has been on high alert for extremist threats.
The suspect repeatedly said “Allahu akbar” — “God is great” in Arabic — during the attack, the prosecutor said. He was armed with a knife and a screwdriver.
The suspect arrived in France without papers in 2014 and was arrested and convicted of glorifying terrorism in the wake of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau told reporters Saturday night. Police experts had ″detected a schizophrenic profile″ in the suspect, he added.
French municipal police officers work to collect evidence at the site of a bladed weapon attack where a man is suspected of killing one person and wounding two municipal police officers in Mulhouse, eastern France on February 22, 2025. (Sebastien Bozon/AFP)
After several months in prison for that conviction, the suspect was confined to house arrest as authorities sought to expel him to Algeria. Retailleau criticized Algeria for resisting the return of criminals France is seeking to deport.
Retailleau told French broadcaster TF1 that France had tried to expel the suspect 10 times, with the Algerians refusing each time to accept him.
The suspect was also on a terror watchlist, called FSPRT, which compiles data from various authorities on individuals to prevent “terrorist” radicalization. It was launched in 2015 following deadly attacks on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo’s offices and a Jewish supermarket.
The French government will convene a special meeting Wednesday about immigration in the wake of the attack, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Sunday. They will notably study 19 countries “where we have the most difficulty in returning people without papers,″ Barrot said on Europe-1 radio.
French forensic police work on the site of a knife attack where a man is suspected of killing one person and seriously wounding two municipal police officers in Mulhouse, eastern France on February 22, 2025. (Sebastien Bozon/AFP)
“Horror has seized our city,” Mulhouse Mayor Michele Lutz said on Facebook. The incident was being investigated as a terror attack, she said, but “this must obviously still be confirmed by the judiciary.”
Macron, who spoke during a visit to France’s agriculture fair, said the “solidarity of the nation” was with the attack victim and his family.
French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou said that “fanaticism has struck again, and we are in mourning.”
AFP contributed to this report.
