Did one escape a terrorist attack in Nice (Alpes-Maritimes)? The arrest of a man armed with a knife on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, March 15 to 16, immediately after a violent robbery, could point to this, RTL reports. At around 1am, a Crime Prevention Brigade group arrested a 19-year-old man with a bloody knife in his hand. The man had just attacked a transgender person in the city centre of Nice, stabbing her with a knife on the cheek, shoulder, arms and hands.
The man fled when he saw the police officers and shouted the Islamic battle cry “Allahu akbar” towards them several times and added: “Shoot me, I want to die as a martyr, I want to go to paradise”. The Bac officers were able to subdue the rampaging man without using weapons and push him to the ground. In addition to the knife, the officers also found a bank card on the suspect that was not in his name. A man who had accompanied him was also arrested. The stabbing victim was hospitalised but is not in danger of death. The national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office has not been called in, but is following the case closely, as RTL reports. As a reminder, Nice has already suffered two Islamist attacks: one on July 14, 2016, when a jihadist at the wheel of a heavy truck ran over several dozen people on the Promenade des Anglais; and a second on October 29, 2020, when three people had their throats slit by a terrorist in the Basilica of Notre-Dame.