2014 Tours police station stabbing
2014 Tours stabbing attack | |
---|---|
Location of Indre-et-Loire within France | |
Location | Joué-lès-Tours |
Date | December 20, 2014 |
Target | Police officers |
Attack type | Stabbing |
Weapons | Knife |
Deaths | 1 (the perpetrator) |
Non-fatal injuries | 3 |
Perpetrator | Bertrand Nzohabonayo |
On 20 December 2014, a man in Joué-lès-Tours near the city of Tours in central France entered a police station and attacked officers with a knife, injuring three before he was shot and killed.
Perpetrator
The attacker was identified as Bertrand Nzohabonayo, age 20, a French citizen and former rap musician born in Burundi in 1994, he was known to the police for minor crimes but was not on any watchlist.[1][2][3][4] The attacker had taken Bilal as his new name upon conversion to Islam, and had been posting Islamist material on his Facebook page, including a photograph of the black flag of the Islamic State.[5][6]
In Burundi, police arrested the attacker's brother, Brice Nzohabonayo, a man with known Islamist sympathies, and claimed that they had informed French authorities the previous year that both brothers should be regarded as suspect due to their extreme religious views.[7]
Aftermath
This attack, and others, were described by CNN as part of a "drumbeat of terror" which struck France in the weeks preceding the Charlie Hebdo shooting.[5][8][9][10]
The attack was not officially categorized as a terrorist attack,[5] though anti-terrorism investigators opened an inquiry.[11] Following this attack and incidents in Nantes and Dijon, which were deemed unrelated to each other, the French government heightened the nation's security.[11]
See also
References
- ↑ "French police shoot dead knifeman who was shouting Islamic slogans". The Daily Telegraph. 20 December 2014. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
- ↑ Lichfield, John (21 December 2014). "Man shot dead by police in jihadist attack in Tours". The Independent. Retrieved 17 November 2015.
- ↑ Rodrigues, Jason (16 January 2015). "Terror attacks in Europe: the five danger zones". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 November 2015.
- ↑ "France Dijon: Driver targets city pedestrians". BBC News. 21 December 2014. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
- 1 2 3 Cruickshank, Paul (16 November 2015). "Drumbeat of terror precedes slaughter that shocks France and the world". CNN. Retrieved 17 November 2015.
- ↑ Mulholland, Rory (21 December 2014). "French knife attacker Bertrand Nzohabonayo was Islamic convert; Man shot dead by French police had changed name to Bilal and posted ISIL flag on Facebook". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
- ↑ "Burundi arrests brother of suspect in French police attack". France 24. 22 December 2014. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
- ↑ Lane, Oliver (12 January 2015). "In Pictures: France’s Three Weeks of Terror". Breitbart. Retrieved 17 November 2015.
- ↑ "Paris terror attacks: West Yorkshire man, 21, arrested after Facebook post praises massacre". The Daily Telegraph. 17 November 2015. Retrieved 17 November 2015.
- ↑ Molinié, William (15 November 2015). "Merah, Kouachi, Belhoucine, Nzohabonayo… Le terrorisme islamiste, une affaire de frères?". 20 minutes (France). Retrieved 17 November 2015.
- 1 2 "France to deploy soldiers after spate of attacks". BBC News. 23 December 2014. Retrieved 26 December 2014.