A female French police officer in the Paris suburbs of Yvelines died of her injuries Friday after being stabbed by a Tunisian migrant who was shot dead by police.
The attack took place at the police station in the commune of Rambouillet at around 2:30 pm and saw the 36-year-old Tunisian migrant enter the porch of the police station and stab the female officer in the throat.
Another officer then opened fire on the Tunisian, firing two shots to neutralise him. The Tunisian was later pronounced dead due to the injuries he had sustained, newspaper Le Parisien reports.
According to the newspaper, the Tunisian had migrated to France in 2009 and was not known to police or French intelligence services, and was living with valid immigration status.
So far, a possible terrorist motive has not been confirmed but the case has been taken over by the national anti-terrorism prosecution team according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The victim of the attack, a mother of two in her 40s, is said to have been returning from her break when the attack took place.
A town of just 26,000 people, Rambouillet is not well-known for violence, with one local police officer telling the newspaper, “The officials at this small police station known for its tranquillity are devastated.”
Both French Prime Minister Jean Castex and Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin announced they would visit the site of the attack later in the day. Darmanin commented on the situation on Twitter saying, “A police officer was the victim of a knife attack at the Rambouillet police station, where I am going.”
Prime Minister Castex commented from Rambouillet on Twitter saying, “The Republic has just lost one of its everyday heroines, in a barbaric gesture of infinite cowardice. To her loved ones, I want to express the support of the whole Nation. To our security forces, I want to say that I share their emotion and their indignation.”
The attack in Rambouillet comes after another police station in the same suburb of Yvelines, in the commune of Trappes, was attacked for two straight hours on Thursday night by a mob of around forty people.
The attackers used garbage bins as shields and fired at least fifty mortar fireworks, while police officers responded with fifty or so tear gas canisters and other non-lethal measures. Despite the damage and length of the attack, no arrests were made by police.
Francois Bersani, a delegate of the SGP police union, claimed that the attack is just one of 48 incidents of urban violence in the Yvelines department in the last week alone.
“We noted thirteen incidents of urban violence last night in the Yvelines which are added to the 48 incidents of the past week,” Bersani said.
Yvelines is also the department where the beheading of teacher Samuel Paty took place in October of last year. Paty was murdered by a radical Islamic Chechen refugee after showing cartoons of the Islamic Prophet Mohammed to his class.