One person was killed and at least two police officers were injured in a knife attack in the French city of Mulhouse, south of Strasbourg. The assailant is a 37-year-old Algerian immigrant, facing deportation and included in a list of suspects under special surveillance.
President Emmanuel Macron did not hesitate to classify the incident as "an act of Islamic terrorism" and emphasized that French authorities will "do everything possible to eradicate terrorism from our soil." The national anti-terrorism prosecutor's office (PNAT) took over the investigation.
According to several witnesses, the attacker shouted "Allahu Akbar" ("God is great") while attacking the two police officers who were injured in the neck and chest, respectively.
The deceased is a 69-year-old pedestrian of Portuguese origin who tried to intervene during the attack and suffered serious stab wounds.
"Horror has struck our city," lamented the mayor of the town, Michèle Lutz, in a message posted on Facebook.
According to initial indications, the assailant had long been on the terrorism prevention surveillance list (FSPRT), created following the attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in which twelve people died in 2015.
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau is expected to visit the scene later this afternoon. The incident occurred shortly before four o'clock in the afternoon, local time. According to union sources, the man, born in Algeria, was under house arrest. He is subject to an obligation to leave French territory (OQTF).