Knifeman Shouting ‘Allahu Akbar… France Is Ruled by the Islamic State’ Shot at Paris Train Station

A knifeman who shouted “Allahu Akbar… France is ruled by the Islamic State” was shot by police in Paris on Monday evening at the Saint-Lazare station.

After a suspected radical Islamist threatened four railway security officers with a knife, an agent for the SUGE, the French police in charge of security for the French railway company SNCF, opened fire, shooting the assailant twice in the chest.

The knifeman was rushed to the hospital and remains in serious condition, according to the French broadcaster BFMTV.

The interaction reportedly began with a routine stop after the unnamed man refused to wear a mask in the train station.

Following some heated words with security officers, the man eventually pulled out a knife and shouted the jihadi war-cry “Allahu Akbar” and later pronounced that “France is ruled by the Islamic State”.

The incident is being investigated as a terror attack, with the man also facing attempted homicide and weapons charges.

Initial reports claim that the man was previously unknown to intelligence services in France, however, according to ID documents found on the man he was known to the police for having committed acts of violence in the past.

Following a string of Islam-inspired terror attacks in France last year — including the beheading of Samuel Paty, a school teacher who showed his class Charlie Hebdo caricatures of the Islamic prophet during a lesson on freedom of expression — French president Emmanuel Macron admitted that parts of his country have become “breeding grounds for terrorists“.

Backing up this claim, a leaked intelligence report by the country’s domestic intelligence service, DGSI, found that as many as 150 neighbourhoods throughout France have fallen under the control of radical Islamists.

Trains have previously been targetted by Islamist terrorists in France, with a Morrocan-born Islamic State operative boarding a Paris bound train in 2015 with an arsenal of weapons.

The plot was thankfully foiled by three American tourists on the train, who tackled and subdued the would-be terrorist.

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