MULHOUSE, France
\nFrench police have made several arrests since a man went on a stabbing rampage, killing one and wounding several others in what President Emmanuel Macron called an \u201cIslamist terrorist act,\u201d anti-terror prosecutors told AFP Sunday.
\nThe knife-wielding suspect, identified by prosecutors as a 37-year-old Algerian-born man, was arrested at the site of Saturday\u2019s attack in the eastern city of Mulhouse.
\nHe was on a terrorism watchlist and subject to deportation orders.
\nA further three people were in custody in connection with the case Sunday, the PNAT prosecutors unit said, without giving details.
\nLocal prosecutor Nicolas Heitz said the suspect, who he did not name, was registered on France\u2019s terrorist watchlist.
\nSpeaking at the police station late Saturday, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said the man had \u201ca schizophrenic profile\u201d and his act had \u201ca psychiatric dimension.\u201d
\nRetailleau said France had repeatedly attempted to expel him from the country, but Algeria refused to cooperate.
\nThe rampage occurred around 4 p.m. (1500 GMT) near a busy market in Mulhouse, a city of around 110,000 people near the German border. At the time, demonstrators were rallying in support of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
\nA 69-year-old Portuguese man was fatally wounded while parking attendants and police were also hurt.
\nTwo officers were seriously wounded, with one sustaining an injury to a carotid artery, and the other to the upper body, prosecutor Heitz told AFP, adding that the latter officer was able to leave hospital.
\nThree other officers suffered minor injuries, prosecutors said.
\nDuring the attack, the suspect was heard shouting \u201cAllahu Akbar\u201d (God is greatest), according to the national anti-terror prosecutors unit (PNAT).
\nWitnesses also told AFP they heard the suspect shouting the words several times.
\nMacron later said there was \u201cno doubt\u201d that the incident was \u201ca terrorist act,\u201d specifically \u201can Islamist terrorist act.\u201d
\nThe government was determined to continue doing \u201ceverything to eradicate terrorism on our soil,\u201d he added.
\nSpeaking during a visit to France\u2019s agriculture fair Saturday, Macron offered condolences to the family of the victim and said the \u201csolidarity of the nation\u201d was behind them.
\nPNAT said it was investigating the attack for murder and attempted murder \u201cin connection with a terrorist enterprise.\u201d
\nTERROR ATTACKS
\nThe terrorist watchlist, called FSPRT, compiles data from various authorities on individuals with the aim of preventing \u201cterrorist\u201d radicalization.
\nIt was launched in 2015 following deadly attacks on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo\u2019s offices and on a Jewish supermarket.
\nRetailleau told French broadcaster TF1 that France had tried to expel him 10 times, with Algeria refusing each time to accept him.
\n\u201cOnce again, it is Islamist terrorism that has struck,\u201d he said. And, once again, he added, problems of migration were \u201cat the origin of this terrorist act.\u201d
\nThere was no immediate comment from Algeria\u2019s presidency or foreign ministry.
\nPrime Minister Francois Bayrou said that \u201cfanaticism has struck again, and we are in mourning.\u201d
\nMulhouse Mayor Michele Lutz wrote on Facebook that \u201chorror has just seized our city.\u201d
\nFrance\u2019s foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot said there would be a meeting of the government\u2019s immigration control council on Wednesday to discuss the implications of the case.
\n\u201cWe must do more, and we must do better,\u201d he told the Europe 1 broadcaster.
\nFrance has recently experienced a string of stabbings deemed acts of terror.
\nIn January, a 32-year-old knife-wielding man wounded a person in a supermarket in Apt, in the south of France. He was charged and jailed for attempted murder in connection with a terrorist undertaking.
\nIn December 2023, a man suspected of stabbing a German tourist to death near the Eiffel Tower was charged with carrying out a terror attack.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MULHOUSE, France French police have made several arrests since a man went on a stabbing rampage, killing one and wounding several others in what President Emmanuel Macron called an \u201cIslamist terrorist act,\u201d anti-terror prosecutors told AFP Sunday. The knife-wielding suspect, identified by prosecutors as a 37-year-old Algerian-born man, was arrested at the site of Saturday\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":463405,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-463403","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n