Man, 19, Killed and Nine Injured After Knifeman Goes on Stabbing Rampage in Lyon
Elisa Menendez, Metro, August 31, 2019
A young man has been killed and nine others were left injured after a knifeman went on a stabbing rampage in the French city of Lyon.
The victim who died was a 19-year-old man but it was unclear if he knew the attacker, according to police.
Emergency services said three of the nine others have been seriously wounded in the attack, which took place outside a metro station in the city’s suburb of Villeurbanne on Saturday.
The attacker is a 33-year-old Afghan citizen who had applied for asylum in France and was awaiting a response, according to a national police official.
Although he provided contradictory information to police, the attack did not appear to be terrorism-related but his motive is unclear, said two French officials.
Initial reports said one man was armed with a knife and the other a skewer.
Police had initially launched a manhunt for a second attacker but later determined that the man in custody was the main suspect, the security official said.
However, a national police official said they were still looking for possible accomplices.
The national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office has not been asked to take part in the investigation at this stage.
Witnesses saw a body being taken away in an ambulance and traces of blood on the ground.
Last May, a parcel bomb in front of a baker’s shop in central Lyon left 14 people slightly injured.
The perpetrator, a young radicalised Algerian, who was arrested three days later, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, according to his confession.
