A crazed 30-year-old man was arrested in the French city of Tours after he attempted to stab random people with a knife on a bridge while yelling “Allahu Akbar”.
On Wednesday, a shirtless man had attempted to stab several random passersby crossing the pont de Fil, a pedestrian bridge that crosses the Loire river, as well as try to throw a man in his 60s off the bridge before police intervened, French broadcaster France Bleu reports.
When police arrived on the scene, following panic from the pedestrians in the area, the man demanded that the officers shoot him while he yelled “Allahu akbar”.
Police took the 30-year-old into custody and are still investigating a possible motive for the incident as the man is said not be on the French terror watchlist, known in France as the S-File.
The Saint-Symphorien footbridge (or Pont de fil ) is a pedestrian and bicycle suspension bridge crossing the Loire at Tours , built from 1845 to 1847 by the Seguin brothers , essentially on the site of the old medieval bridge of Tours . (Wikimedia Commons)
Investigators later released information showing that the man was of West Indian origin. He claimed to have smoked a lot of cannabis before the incident and said did not remember anything about the incident or why he shouted “Allahu Akbar”.
“I shouted Allahu Akbar without knowing what it means! I had smoked a lot of cannabis the day before and the morning of the acting out,” the 30-year-old said.
While police have ruled out terrorism, the West Indian could still face charges of attempted murder, threats with a deadly weapon, and could face up to 30 years in prison if convicted.
Man Arrested After Weapon Threats, Shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ in Belgian City Recently Rocked by Terror https://t.co/55LthJRJkj
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In the last few months, several similar incidents have occurred across France including a woman who yelled “Allahu Akbar” while wounding two people in a supermarket in la Seyne-sur-Mer with a box cutter.
In April, another woman yelled the phrase near the site of the world-famous Cannes film festival threatening to blow herself up while her two young children were with her. She was arrested and her children were placed into protective custody following the incident.
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