France: Police Officer injured in knife attack at Cannes; attacker neutralized

A police officer was stabbed with a knife in Cannes, southern France, on Monday, November 8, and his assailant has been "neutralised," according to French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin. The minister is now on his way to the city to investigate the incident. "A policeman from the Cannes was stabbed wounded. The assailant was neutralized by his colleagues. I am going there immediately this morning and I give all my support to the national police and to the city of Cannes," Darmanin's tweet (translated) read. 

Despite being stabbed, the police officer was fortunately left unharmed due to his bulletproof vest, the minister informed on Twitter. In a subsequent tweet, he praised the courage of the police officers who neutralized the attacker. "I want to underline the courage and exemplary coolness of the police officers who neutralized the assailant and avoided the worst," he mentioned.

Deutsche Welle reported, according to police sources, that the attacker arrived at the police station early in the morning, opened the door of a police car parked in front of the station, and stabbed the officer behind the wheel. He then attempted to assault the second officer in the car, but the third officer responded by opening fire on the assailant. The knife attack in Cannes comes as voters' main concerns in the run-up to the 2022 French presidential election are violent crime and terrorism, according to local media reports.

Another police officer severely injured the attacker, who was in serious condition. According to Le Figaro, the suspect is an Algerian national with a residency permit in Italy. The suspect was born in 1984 and was unknown to French authorities, Le Figaro reported. On Twitter, French lawmaker Eric Ciotti shared photos from the crime scene and thanked the officers involved.

French police targeted in series of attacks in recent years

On April 23, a police administrative assistant was killed when an attacker stabbed her at the entrance to a police station in the Parisian suburb of Rambouillet. The attacker, a 36-year-old Tunisian national, was shot dead by security forces. In October 2019, 3 officers and one police employee in Paris were stabbed to death in the headquarters of the Paris police by a radicalised IT employee. Each attack has sharpened attention on the danger of Islamic extremism in France, which has suffered a wave of violence over the last decade from radicals inspired by al Qaeda or the Islamic State (IS) group.

(With inputs from agencies)

Image: Twitter