A knife-wielding man killed at least two people before being neutralized by Portuguese police in Lisbon during an attack on the global headquarters of the Ismailis, a Shia Muslim community led by the Aga Khan.

"The attack has left several wounded and, for the moment, two dead," police said in a statement, adding that the alleged perpetrator of the attack had been arrested after being shot by the police. The number of wounded, however, was questionable, with another source reporting only one injured.

The president of the National Council of the Ismaili Muslim Community, Rahim Firozali, said in a statement that "a man armed with a sharp object" had entered the premises of the Ismaili center in Lisbon and had "attacked three people (...) fatally hitting two of them and wounding a third." "The attacker's motives are not known," he added.

The man who carried out the attack with "a large knife" was admitted to a hospital in the Portuguese capital, authorities said. He is "alive and in custody," police said.

"We know that this is an Afghan, a refugee, who in fact, for one reason or another, broke into the centre," Nazim Ahmad, a leader of Lisbon's Ismaili community, told Portuguese private television SIC. "We know that there are two dead, two women (...) employees of the center," he added.

Attacks on Ismailis on the rise

The attack took place at the Ismaili Centre in Lisbon. This community of Shia Ismaili Muslims established its global headquarters in Lisbon and its spiritual leader, the Aga Khan, obtained Portuguese citizenship in 2019.

The Ismailis, a minority of Shiite Islam, form a community of 12 to 15 million people spread over thirty countries. They have about 7,000 members in Portugal.

In recent years, attacks have multiplied, especially in Pakistan, against Ismailis, accused by Sunni extremists of embodying a current "deviant" from Muslim orthodoxy.

"I express my solidarity and condolences to the victims and the Ismaili community," Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa told reporters, adding that it was "premature to make any interpretation of the motives behind this criminal act."

An "isolated act" according to the President of the Republic

"The first elements point to an isolated act," President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said in a statement.

According to the president of the association of the Afghan community in Portugal, Omed Taeri, the alleged assailant is a refugee who "suffers from psychological problems" after "losing his wife in Greece".

He arrived in Portugal just over a year ago and was worried about the fate of his three children, he said in an interview with CNN Portugal.

According to local media, the attacker was in his forties and was taking English classes at the Ismaili centre.

The victims, two women of Portuguese nationality according to the press, would be a teacher in her forties and a student in her twenties.

1983, last attack on Portuguese soil

The Aga Khan decided to locate the headquarters of his community in Portugal after an agreement signed in June 2015 with the Portuguese State providing tax advantages and diplomatic privileges, in exchange for investments in scientific research and development.

The last attack on Portuguese soil was on 27 July 1983, when an armed group of five Armenians attacked the Turkish embassy in Lisbon, killing two people. The attackers had died in the attack.

Police said they were informed of the attack shortly before 11 a.m. local time (10 GMT) and arrived at the scene very quickly. In the early afternoon, on the outskirts of the Ismaili center of Lisbon, hooded police armed with machine guns were posted at the various entrances of this closed complex which houses a mosque in a district of northern Lisbon.

Standing in front of the main entrance, the journalists followed the movement of police cars and black vans of the special intervention unit.

With AFP

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