- Armand Rajabpour-Miyandoab was recognized to authorities as a radical Islamist
- He killed a 24-year-old German Filipino vacationer to loss of life and attacked two others
- Both Rajabpour-Miyandoab and the German vacationer are pictured for the primary time
The Iranian Islamist who killed a German-Filipino vacationer and attacked two others, together with a British father, close to the Eiffel Tower has been unmasked.
Armand Rajabpour-Miyandoab, 26, is a convicted terrorist who has been arrested for allegedly beginning a bloody rampage in Paris on Saturday night time, utilizing a kitchen knife and a hammer.
He stored screaming ‘Allahu Akbar’ – Arabic for ‘God is the best’ – and professing his assist for ISIS as he was arrested for concentrating on the German vacationer, named solely as Collin, a British nationwide recognized solely as Melvyn, 66, and a 60-year-old French man known as Thierry.
Rajabpour-Miyandoab, who had extreme psychiatric issues and who was meant to be beneath surveillance by France‘s intelligence providers, set upon Collin in entrance of his spouse and one other feminine pal.
Both Collin and his accomplice have been nurses, and had labored in a retirement house in Germany since January, stated an investigating supply.
Rajabpour-Miyandoab, who had extreme psychiatric issues and who was meant to be beneath surveillance by France ‘s intelligence providers, set upon Collin in entrance of his spouse
German-Filipino vacationer Collin – a 24-year-old recognized by his first title solely – was the primary sufferer of Armand Rajabpour-Miyandoab
Armand Rajabpour-Miyandoab shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ as he was taken in by Paris police, who immobilised him with a stun gun
‘The homicide sufferer was dedicated to caring for different individuals,’ he added. ‘During his vacation in Paris he had visited the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre and Disneyland.’
Following the assault on Collin, he went after Melvyn, who was on vacation in Paris on the time of the assault.
The British father was stabbed within the eye within the assault, and on Monday was recovering from the wound in hospital in central Paris.
The terrorist additionally attacked 60-year-old Thierry, who had been out strolling along with his spouse and baby, hitting him with a hammer. He too was nonetheless in hospital on Monday.
Following a chase, and the intervention of a taxi driver, Rajabpour-Miyandoab was lastly disabled by police utilizing tasers.
Rajabpour-Miyandoab was anticipated to be charged with a variety of offences together with terrorist homicide on Monday.
France’s inside minister Gérald Darmanin confirmed the suspect had formally been on an ‘S-list’, for surveillance.
Rajabpour-Miyandoab had expressed his anger on the mass killing of Muslims in Gaza by Israeli armed forces, and stated ‘France was complicit’, stated Mr Darmanin.
In 2018, Rajabpour-Miyandoab was sentenced to 5 years in jail for terrorist conspiracy.
The son of two Iranian refugees who was born in France, he had transformed to Islam in 2015 after being radicalised on-line by an Isis supporter, in response to prosecution paperwork.
Rajabpour-Miyandoab was well-known for forging on-line hyperlinks with different terrorists together with Larossi Aballa, who went on to stab two law enforcement officials to loss of life in Magnanville in June 2016.
Another Facebook pal was Adel Kermiche, one of many perpetrators of the stabbing to loss of life of a Catholic priest in Saint-Étienne du Rouvray in the identical yr.
Many of these linked with such crimes have been, like Rajabpour-Miyandoab, on S-Files, however managed to hold out atrocities anyway.
Rajabpour-Miyandoab later claimed to have accomplished a ‘deradicalisation programme’, claiming he had misplaced curiosity in terrorism.
In court docket in 2018, he stated ‘Islamism was ruining my life’, claiming he had taken to ingesting beer and consuming pork – actions that are barred to practising Muslims.
But on-line exercise confirmed that Rajabpour-Miyandoab was nonetheless researching methods to make phosphorus bombs.
Terrorism prosecutors stated on Sunday they have been investigating the homicide and tried homicide ‘in reference to a terrorist plot’.
Three individuals ‘near’ Rajabpour-Miyandoab have been being held in custody yesterday afternoon following the incident by Bir Hakeim bridge over the River Seine, prosecutors stated.
A forensic police officer works on the scene on Saturday night time following the fear assault within the French capital
Armand Rajabpour-Miyandoab, 26, was launched from jail in 2020, and left to stay at house along with his dad and mom whereas present process ‘psychiatric and neurological remedy
Rajabpour-Miyandoab was ‘being monitored in a approach that didn’t imply he was being hospitalised, and was purported to comply with a course of remedy’ for his psychological well being points, stated Aurélien Rousseau, the French well being minister.
‘As typically in these instances, there is a combination of an ideology, an simply influenced individual and, sadly, psychiatry,’ he added.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz wrote on X that he was ‘devastated’ by the assault, saying that ‘our ideas are with the wounded, their households and mates’.
His Interior Minister Nancy Faeser had earlier warned that ‘the conflict in Gaza after Hamas’ terrorist act (of October 7) has worsened the risk,’ saying that ‘the specter of Islamist terrorism is acute and critical’.
Police and safety sources confirmed the attacker had claimed accountability in a social media video as he struck, talking about ‘present occasions, the federal government (and) the homicide of harmless Muslims’.
The 24-year-old German-Filipino nurse was killed as a taxi driver intervened to maintain the attacker away from his spouse.
Video of the suspect’s arrest exhibits him slowly backing away from a number of French law enforcement officials whereas carrying what seems to be a hammer.
Two officers stride in the direction of him as he backs away on the nook of a avenue in Paris.
Following a chase, and the intervention of a taxi driver, Rajabpour-Miyandoab was lastly disabled by police utilizing tasers.
Rousseau advised broadcaster France 3 that the wounded victims suffered solely ‘superficial (bodily) traumas, however in fact psychological traumas that shall be huge’.
On Sunday each surviving victims have been nonetheless present process medical care – one on the Georges Pompidou hospital in Paris, the opposite on the metropolis’s Cochin hospital. Their situation was stated to be ‘steady’.
French gendarmes patrol the Trocadero plaza close to the Eiffel Tower following the massacre on Saturday
French police attend the scene following the terrorist knife assault close to the Bir Hakeim bridge and Quai de Grenelle
The attacker, who has been named domestically as Armand R., shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ as he was taken in by Paris police, who immobilised him with a stun gun
The lethal assault in central Paris throughout a busy weekend night time got here with the nation on its highest alert for assault
The assault has rocked France, which has seen tensions rise amid the Israel-Hamas battle
Tensions have risen in France, house to giant Jewish and Muslim populations, following Hamas’s assault on Israel on October 7 and Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip
The lethal assault in central Paris throughout a busy weekend night time got here with the nation on its highest alert for assaults, as tensions rise in opposition to the background of the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
The second sufferer of the assault was British, and was out strolling along with his spouse when Armand R. attacked him from behind.
‘The household have been on the Avenue President Kennedy once they have been set upon,’ stated an investigating supply, who added: ‘A hammer was used to hit the person over the pinnacle.’
The Englishman was rushed to hospital, the place his situation was later described as ‘steady’. A 3rd sufferer was additionally badly damage in a hammer assault, stated the supply.
The UK’s Foreign Office stated on Sunday: ‘We are supporting a British man who was injured in Paris, and are in touch with the native authorities.’
The space by Bir Hakeim bridge, often thronging with vacationers and locals, was cordoned off by police and vibrant with the flashing lights of safety forces and emergency providers.
A taxi driver who witnessed the scene intervened, Darmanin stated.
‘He had threatened them very violently… he’ll now must reply for his actions earlier than justice,’ Darmanin stated.
The assault has rocked France, which has seen tensions rise amid the Israel-Hamas battle.
President Emmanuel Macron stated he was sending his condolences to the household of a German killed within the ‘terrorist assault’.
A police supply stated that the attacker was recognized for psychiatric issues and had stated he couldn’t stand Muslims being killed on the planet. Pictured: French police secures the entry to the Bir-Hakeim bridge
A person has been stabbed to loss of life whereas a British vacationer is reportedly amongst two others badly injured after a knifeman screaming ‘Allahu Akbar’ launched a frenzied assault in Paris. Pictured: Police secures the entry to the Bir-Hakeim bridge close to the Eiffel Tower
A police supply stated that the attacker was recognized for psychiatric issues and had stated he couldn’t stand Muslims being killed on the planet
Macron, writing on X, thanked safety forces for his or her fast arrest of the suspected attacker and stated justice must be served ‘within the title of the French individuals’.
‘We won’t give in to terrorism,’ Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne wrote on X after the assault.
‘Paris is in mourning after this horrible assault,’ Transport Minister Clement Beaune wrote on X.
Joseph S., a 37-year-old grocery store supervisor who requested to not give his final title, witnessed the scene as he sat in a bar, and stated he heard screams and other people shouting ‘assist, assist’ as they ran.
He stated a person wielding an object attacked a person who had fallen down, and inside 10 minutes the police arrived.
France has suffered a number of assaults by Islamist extremists, together with the November 2015 suicide and gun assaults in Paris claimed by the Islamic State group wherein 130 individuals have been killed.
There had been a relative lull in recent times, whilst officers have warned that the risk stays.
But tensions have risen in France, house to giant Jewish and Muslim populations, following Hamas’s assault on Israel on October 7 and Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip.
Security in Paris can be beneath specific scrutiny because it gears as much as host the 2024 Summer Olympic Games.
In October, trainer Dominique Bernard was killed within the northern French city of Arras by a younger radicalised Islamist from Russia’s Caucasus area.