It was shortly before 6pm on Thursday July 1, 2021 when police officers from the Crime Control Unit (BAC) had to intervene to stop an obviously disturbed person. It was a very aggressive offender who was walking around Saint Helier Street in Rennes with a knife in his hand. A resident who was on his balcony at the time of the incident told the newspaper Ouest France that the person was “screaming as he walked along the pavement” and that he “did not seem to be in a normal state”. “A disturbed person? Perhaps, but the fact remains that his appearance on the street had a great effect on a shopkeeper. With tears in her eyes, she confided her fears: ‘It happened right there on the pavement,’ she said. I was so scared.
“She explained that she had closed the glass door of her shop in a hurry on the suggestion of a customer. “I was panicking.” The man was hit by police Taser shots and, stunned by the shocks, was arrested. “It happened very quickly,” the shop assistant said.
Each stabbing is a reminder that France is under threat from terrorism. The attack in Würzburg, Germany, on June 25 brought back vivid memories of the terrorist attacks that have hit Europe in recent years. Knife attacks continue to dominate the headlines, such as on Wednesday June 30, when a 36-year-old man armed with a knife was shot dead by SNCF train security guards.