Police arrested a 31-year-old man in Nice, southern France, on Friday after witnesses saw him strangling a woman in the street.
The attack allegedly happened in downtown Nice along the Rue Trachel at around 3am on Friday, with witnesses claiming that a man had been strangling a woman on the street while yelling “Allahu Akbar!”
Police arrived at the scene and found an injured 40-year-old woman who showed signs that she had been strangled, Actu17 reports.
The victim told police that she knew the man who had assaulted her and officers located the 31-year-old suspect a short time later.
A source close to the investigation said that the suspect would only speak in Arabic and had no identity documentation or weapons on him at the time of the arrest. The victim was taken to a hospital while the police say they are looking at local CCTV footage and are investigating the circumstances of the incident.
The case comes just weeks after another man, a 26-year-old illegal migrant from Tunisia, entered the Nice Basilica while yelling in Arabic and later threatened a Roman Catholic church official and spat on the ground before he was arrested by police.
Friday marked the first anniversary of the terrorist attack that took place at the Basilica that saw three people murdered by a Tunisian migrant who had come into Europe illegally, first from Tunisia to Italy and then to France, where he carried out his attack.
In July, the Basilica saw another incident in which a 27-year-old on a terrorism watchlist had also made threats after trying to steal a donation box. “I’m going to come back, and I’m going to kill you all,” the man allegedly said.