Panic gripped a busy Paris street on Monday after a man armed with two kitchen knives attacked three women in broad daylight before being overpowered by bystanders and an off-duty police officer.Two of the victims suffered severe injuries, while investigators are yet to establish the suspect’s whereabouts or motive.French interior minister Laurent Nunez told reporters that the suspect attacked three women aged 19, 24 and 36 with two kitchen knives. “The man had been detained by an off-duty police officer. I pay tribute to him, it was a courageous act,” Nunez said.Paris police said the attack took place at around 11:30 am local time (0930 GMT). All three victims were taken to hospital following the incident.The suspect’s identity and motive remain unclear. Nunez said police had been unable to verify his identity and described his statements during arrest as ‘incoherent’.Video footage first posted on Snapchat and later verified by Reuters showed a man with long black hair, wearing a cream tracksuit and wielding a large knife in each hand, attempting to attack and stab a young woman. It was not immediately clear whether the woman was injured.Another video showed the suspect lying on the ground after being restrained by members of the public, with the two knives visible nearby on a pedestrian crossing.Mohamed-Ali Bouhadjar, 26, who filmed the incident and shared the footage on Snapchat, described how bystanders intervened.“When I saw him stab a woman in the back, I started shouting, ‘Come on, let’s stop him!’ Several people stepped in,” Bouhadjar told Reuters.“One person threw a suitcase at him. He dropped the knives. At that moment, I grabbed him, swept his legs out from under him, and we pinned him to the ground,” he said.The footage also captured the suspect making a religious statement while being restrained. “It is Allah who commanded me,” the man lying on the floor says in the video.Authorities have not linked the attack to terrorism. Nunez said the motive remained unknown and reiterated that investigators were still working to establish the suspect’s identity.The French national anti-terrorist prosecutor’s office said it was ‘in observation’ over whether to open a formal investigation into the attack.The incident comes two days after an Islamist radical drove a rented minivan into a Pride parade in Berlin, killing one woman and injuring 29 others.
