French police detained a man on Monday after he attacked three women with knives near Porte de Clichy in northern Paris, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told reporters. The man attacked the three women, who were aged 19, 24 and 36, with two kitchen knives, severely wounding two of them, Nunez added.
The attack occurred around 11:30 AM (0930 GMT) in the Porte de Clichy area in the north of the capital, Nunez and Paris police said. Two of the victims were seriously wounded but in critical condition, Nunez said. One was hit in the lower back, the other in the abdomen.
A French off-duty policeman on Monday detained a man after he allegedly attacked and wounded three women in Paris with two kitchen knives, a minister and police said. The identity of the suspect and his motive were not immediately clear.
The mayor of the northwest 17th district where the stabbings occurred, Geoffroy Boulard, said on X that one of the three was pregnant.
According to a witness speaking to Le Figaro, one of the victims was pregnant. Video footage verified by Reuters and aired on social platform X showed a man with long black hair, wearing a cream tracksuit and wielding one big knife in each hand stabbing a young woman.
The suspect had made "incoherent statements", Nunez said, warning however against jumping to conclusions as to his motives. The attack came after an Islamist radical on Saturday in the German capital of Berlin ploughed a rented minivan into a Pride parade, killing one woman and wounding 29.
Nunez said the suspect was "apprehended by an off-duty police officer". Waitress Kheira Dellabed, 54, said she was washing dishes at the time of the stabbing. "We saw a man walk by with two knives and stab three people," she said. "Then a young man with a small suitcase hit him with his bag, knocking him to the ground," she added. A waiter from a nearby restaurant then put a chair "on him".
Le Figaro reported that the man declared: "It is Allah who ordered me" while he was being arrested. The motive of the attack remains unknown, Mr Nunez said. He added that police could not verify the identity of the attacker, whose declarations were "incoherent" when he was being arrested.
The French national anti-terrorist prosecutor’s office said it was weighing whether to open an investigation.
Follow us for live European news
1 further source not geolocated