A knife attack took place Saturday morning in Romans-sur-Isère, in the Drôme, leaving two dead and five injured. The alleged perpetrator, a 33-year-old Sudanese refugee according to his residence permit, was arrested by the police without resistance, moments after the facts.
The Lyon judicial police are seized of the investigation. The national anti-terrorist prosecution is currently "assessing" the facts to find out whether it is seizing the investigation.
The facts: a deadly journey through the streets of Romans-sur-Isère
The attack began Saturday morning around 10:45 am in the streets of Romans-sur-Isère, a town of 30,000 inhabitants in the Drôme, in the middle of confinement. Armed with a knife, the alleged perpetrator "went to a tobacconist" whose owner he attacked, Marie-Hélène Thoraval, the mayor of the commune, told AFP. "His wife intervened and was injured too," she said.
The assailant then "went to another business, a butcher's shop, where he grabbed a new knife", before continuing his deadly hike in the center of the city, via Gailly and Jean places. Jaurès. "He entered the shop. He took a knife, jumped over the counter, and planted a customer, then ran away," said AFP Ludovic Breyton, the owner of the establishment where a no one was killed. "My wife tried to help the victim, to no avail."
Two people died, and five others were injured, according to Interior Minister Christophe Castaner. A previous assessment reported four injured, all in "absolute emergency" according to the mayor of the town. The assailant was quickly arrested after the fact, without putting up any resistance to the police.
The alleged perpetrator: a 33-year-old Sudanese refugee
The alleged perpetrator presented himself as a 33-year-old Sudanese asylum seeker, who has been a refugee since January 2017 in France according to his residence permit, according to reports reported to Europe 1. He is unknown to the police under the identity that he declared.
According to the first information gathered by Europe 1, he was arrested on his knees in the street, when he seemed to be praying. According to witnesses quoted by the radio France Bleu Drôme Ardèche , the assailant would have shouted "Allah Akbar" while rushing on his victims. He would have asked the police who arrested him to "kill him", according to David Olivier Reverdy, deputy national secretary of Alliance national police, interviewed on BFM TV.
His motivations appear unclear at the moment.
The judicial police seized of the investigation, the anti-terrorist prosecution "in evaluation"
The Lyon judicial police are seized of the investigation. The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office (Pnat), in conjunction with the Valencia Prosecutor's Office, is "currently being evaluated" to find out whether it is seizing the investigation.
The head of state, Emmanuel Macron, promised in a tweet that "all the light" would be shed "on this heinous act which has plunged our country into mourning already hard hit in recent weeks". The Minister of the Interior, who visited the site at the end of the afternoon, first described the route as "terrorist", before recalling that only the anti-terrorist prosecutor's office could decide on the qualification of the facts.
My thoughts are with the victims of the Romans-sur-Isère attack, the injured, their families. All the light will be shed on this odious act which comes to mourn our country already hard hit in recent weeks.
- Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) April 4, 2020This attack comes at a time when France is living under a constant terrorist threat since the wave of unprecedented jihadist attacks started in 2015.