Police at the scene of the Mulhouse stabbings<\/p>\n
One person was killed and two police officers were seriously injured in what Emmanuel Macron called an \u201cIslamist terror attack\u201d in eastern France on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The Algerian suspect, who authorities said was on a terror prevention watchlist, was arrested in the city of Mulhouse, near the Swiss and German borders, following the knife attack, according to local media.<\/p>\n
Three more police officers and one parking attendant were lightly injured in the attack. The French president said he had \u201cno doubt\u201d the attack was terror related.<\/p>\n
The stabbing spree occurred shortly before 4pm on Saturday in the middle of a market near a demonstration about the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to the local prosecutor.<\/p>\n
The suspect allegedly shouted \u201cAllahu Akbar\u201d multiple times during the attack, according to France\u2019s national anti-terror prosecutors unit (PNAT), which has taken charge of the investigation.<\/p>\n
The PNAT said it was investigating the attack for murder, and attempted murder \u201cin connection with a terrorist enterprise\u201d.<\/p>\n
A passer-by died after suffering multiple stab wounds after trying to intervene in the attack, according to the local prosecutor.<\/p>\n
One of the seriously wounded police officers sustained an injury to the carotid artery, and the other to the thorax, the prosecutor said.<\/p>\n
The suspect was under an order to leave France after being released from a detention centre in June and had since been under house arrest, Le Parisien added.<\/p>\n
The newspaper reported that the attack occurred shortly after the 37-year-old allegedly refused to appear at the Mulhouse national police station.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is without any doubt an act of Islamist terrorism,\u201d Mr Macron told reporters on the sidelines of the annual French farm show.<\/p>\n
The government was determined to continue doing \u201ceverything to eradicate terrorism on our soil\u201d, the president said, adding that the \u201csolidarity of the nation\u201d was with the victim<\/p>\n
Mich\u00e8le Lutz, the mayor of Mulhouse, spoke of the \u201chorror that just swept over our town\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said officers who had tried to \u201cneutralise\u201d the attacker were injured in the process in what has been described as a suspected terror attack.<\/p>\n
\u201cI extend our feelings to the victims and their loved ones,\u201d Ms Lutz said.<\/p>\n
Francois Bayrou, the French prime minister, said \u201cfanaticism has struck again, and we are in mourning\u201d.<\/p>\n
Bruno Retailleau, the interior minister, was expected to travel to the scene of the attack later Saturday.<\/p>\n
The terror watchlist, called FSPRT, compiles data from various authorities on individuals with the aim of preventing \u201cterrorist\u201d radicalisation.<\/p>\n
It was launched in 2015 following the deadly attacks at the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo<\/a> and on a Jewish supermarket.<\/p>\n The latest attack follows a spate of stabbings and terror incidents in Europe over the last 12 months, particularly in Germany.<\/p>\n On Friday, a Syrian asylum seeker was arrested after stabbing a tourist at Berlin\u2019s Holocaust memorial<\/a>. He had been harbouring a \u201cplan to kill Jews\u201d, according to German prosecutors.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, an Afghan migrant drove his car into a crowd in Munich<\/a>, killing a mother and her two-year-old daughter and injuring at least 30 more.<\/p>\n