A man who stabbed three women in northwest Paris has been filmed saying it was Allah who ordered him to act, according to footage taken by witnesses and authenticated by Le Figaro.
The video was shot as passers-by pinned him to the ground at the Porte de Clichy tram stop in the 17th arrondissement shortly before 11.30am on July 27, 2026. He was carrying two kitchen knives.
France’s national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office said it was monitoring the case and had yet to decide whether to take it over. The Paris prosecutor’s office placed the 31-year-old in custody on suspicion of attempted murder.
The women were aged 19, 24 and 36. Two were gravely wounded, one struck in the lower back and the other in the abdomen.
Geoffroy Boulard, mayor of the 17th arrondissement, said on X that one of them was pregnant. He wrote later that all three were out of danger.
Ahmed Djahel, who helped restrain the man, told broadcaster CNEWS that the attacker went for women and nobody else. Video verified by Reuters showed a man in a cream tracksuit with a long knife in each hand.
“We saw a man walk by with two knives and stab three people,” waitress Kheira Dellabed told AFP. A young man knocked him down with a cabin suitcase before a waiter from a neighbouring restaurant pinned him with a chair.
An off-duty officer from the Paris police prefecture raised the alarm and detained him at 11.35am.
French interior minister Laurent Nuñez urged caution over the motive, saying the man had given only a declared identity and was making incoherent remarks. A police source told France Télévisions he was known to the authorities for psychiatric follow-up.
The attack came two days after a van was driven into crowds at Berlin’s Christopher Street Day parade, killing a woman and wounding 29. The 21-year-old attacker, Abdul Ballout, was shot dead by German police the following day.
Ballout had been convicted in May of preparing a serious act of violence and released on a suspended juvenile sentence.
Three women were also wounded in a knife attack on line 3 of the Paris metro in December 2025. The suspect in that case was released from custody on psychiatric grounds.
