Woman slashes 2 with blade in France
MARSEILLE (AFP) — Two people were hurt in a town in southern France on Sunday when a woman shouting “Allahu akbar” (God is greatest) attacked them in a supermarket with a boxcutter knife, prosecutors said.
A customer was struck in the chest during the latemorning assault in La Seyne- sur-Mer, outside the Mediterranean port of Toulon, but the wound is not life-threatening, prosecutor Bernard Marchal told AFP.
A woman working at a checkout counter was also cut over her eye. Both casualties were taken to hospital.
”Several witnesses have quoted her as saying it was Allah who told her to do it, that they were all miscreants and that she wanted the police to kill her,” Marchal said.
He added that “contrary to what was said at the start, she was not wearing a veil, but a black tunic over black trousers and black glasses.”
France has been on high alert following a string of jihadist attacks since early 2015, often by people who have become radicalized or claim to have acted in the name of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria group.
The 24-year-old assailant, who did not have a police record, was overpowered by a customer and two supermarket employees and taken into custody.
”I grabbed her wrists to get hold of the cutter,” said the customer, an electrician who gave only his first name, Sebastien.
”I asked her ‘Why did you do it?’ She did not answer.”
The woman “was in a panic, she was afraid, she did not understand what was happening to her, she had no strength left,” Sebastien said.