Terrorist Arrested Over France Police Attack on Saturday Is Unmasked as Extremist the Country Failed to Deport Ten Times

The terrorist arrested over the stabbing attack on police in France has been unmasked as an extremist the European country tried to deport ten times.

Brahim A., an Algerian national aged 37, has been named by French media as the man behind the bloodbath that left a man dead and two others injured in Mulhouse, eastern France, on Saturday afternoon.

The attacker was heard screaming ‘Allahu Akbar’ – Arabic for ‘God is the Greatest’ – as he plunged a knife into a 69-year-old Portuguese civilian in a covered market, before slashing at two policemen.

The Portuguese man, who has not been named, died, while the two officers ended up in intensive care with severe wounds to the throat and chest.

The attacker survived unhurt, as President Emmanuel Macron blamed him for an ‘Islamist terrorist attack.’

Bruno Retailleau, France’s Interior Minister, meanwhile confirmed that Brahim A. had been on a terror watch-list after being convicted for ‘apology for terrorism’ last year.

He was briefly placed in a custody centre in Mulhouse, and then put under house arrest. But when the French authorities repeatedly attempted to deport him home to North Africa, Algeria refused 10 times.

Footage shows Brahim A. running away from police before being tackled to the ground as he was arrested. Another clip showed the Algerian, with a white bandage tied around his head, being led into a police car by officers in body armour.

Mr Retailleau said: ‘Once again, it is Islamist terrorism that has struck. And, once again, I would add that it is the migratory disorders that are also at the origin of this terrorist act.

‘On ten occasions, my staff contacted the Algerian consulate, with neither it, or Algeria generally, ever accepting someone who was born in Algeria.’

Mr Retailleau said Brahim A. suffered from ‘psychiatric disorders’ and was clearly a danger to the public.

It has since emerged that the attacker had previously called on Muslims to arm themselves and ‘fight the unbelievers’

France’s National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation into ‘murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise’ and ‘attempted murder of persons in positions of public authority, in connection with a terrorist enterprise’.

Nicolas Heitz, the Mulhouse prosecutor, confirmed that knifeman Brahim A. was on a file containing suspects said to have been ‘radicalised as terrorists.’

Michèle Lutz, the Mayor of Mulhouse, said: ‘Horror has just gripped our city. A man attacked passers-by at the covered canal market with a knife, several municipal police officers who intervened to arrest him were also injured.’

Three other municipal policemen were also wounded in the attack, including two parking control officers.

Another investigating source said: ‘The man was attending a police station to sign his judicial control form connected with his house arrest. He refused to do this, and instead attacked a number of people with a knife.’

The attack unfolded by the Market Square and canal in the middle of Mulhouse, when it was packed with shoppers.

It follows a series of bomb, gun and knife attacks carried out by Islamic State and al-Qaeda operatives across France.

The deadliest single terrorist attack ever in the country came in November 2015 when 130 people were killed during one night in Paris.

Suicide bombers pledging allegiance to ISIS targeted the Stade de France, cafés, restaurants and the Bataclan music venue, where 90 died.

Earlier in 2015, two Paris-born gunmen linked to Al-Qaeda broke into the offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine, leaving 17 people dead inside and three outside.

In July 2016, 86 people were called and more than 400 injured when a 19 tonne truck was deliberately driven into crowds on the seafront promenade at Nice, on the Mediterranean coast.

During the same month, two Isis terrorists murdered an 86-year-old Catholic priest during a church service in Normandy.

And in October 2020, three people were stabbed to death by a Tunisian immigrant in the Notre Dame basilica in Nice.

There have been frequent knife attacks on the forces of law and order, leading to the deaths of serving police.

Terrorists have also targetted teachers, such as Samuel Paty, who was decapitated in the greater Paris suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine in 2020.