A man has been shot dead by police in the coastal French city of Marseille after at least five people were injured during a knife rampage this afternoon.
At least one of the victims was taken to hospital in critical condition after the incident outside a fast food restaurant in Bouches-du-Rhône on Tuesday.
A witness said he saw a man with ‘two large butcher knives’ at the scene. The Marseille public prosecutor said the suspect carried two knives and an iron bar.
Graphic footage of the incident showed the suspect shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ [God is the greatest] before walking towards police and being shot several times.
A witness at the scene told French media that police ‘tried to arrest [the perpetrator]’ before ‘the man tried to attack a police officer with a knife’.
‘The officer shouted “stop, stop” before hearing gunfire.’
Marseille public prosecutor Nicolas Bessonne said the suspect was ‘a legal Tunisian national’ who ‘attempted to attack people…blindly and gratuitously’ after he was evicted from a hotel in the Belsunce district for not paying his rent.
‘On Tuesday, around 2:45 p.m., the individual returned, went up to his old room, and stabbed the person who was occupying the room,’ he said.
The hotel manager and a guest were said to be among those injured in the fracas, before the perpetrator went into the street and threatened police officers, according to local media.
The hotel guest occupying the room is ‘in a state of absolute emergency,’ the public prosecutor said.
French outlet BFMTV reported that the man was seen with an iron bar and two knives
Police shot the suspect dead near a fast food restaurant in Bouches-du-Rhône, Marseille
Bessonne said the man went on to the hotel lobby and stabbed the hotel manager ‘one or more times’ before chasing the manager’s son down the street and stabbing him in the back.
Both are in ‘relative emergency’, he told reporters.
The man then went into a nearby bistro and tried to stab customers, the prosecutor said. He then carried on to Cours Belsunce and tried to attack others.
Police and firefighters were deployed to the scene and had set up a security perimeter by 4pm local time.
Umbrellas belonging to the restaurant were initially put out to cover the bodies while investigators worked on the scene.
The suspect was reportedly hit with an electric shock pistol before being shot.
He was pronounced dead shortly after being taken to hospital, at 3.26pm, French media reports.
All victims were injured by a long knife and treated by emergency services, Le Figaro reports.
Sources told Le Figaro the man stabbed a hotel manager and a guest before going out into the street and threatening police officers
The man was reportedly subdued with a stun gun before being shot by police
Le Parisien, TF1 and Le Figaro reported that five people had been injured in the attack.
The AFP news agency reported that ‘at least four people’ were stabbed.
The suspect, who has not been named, was identified only as a Tunisian national and legal resident of France.
Local public transport services were suspended due to the attack.
La Provence described the site of the incident as a ‘stone’s throw’ from the Old Port of Marseille.
Interior minister Bruno Retailleau is expected to report to Marseille’s police station over the attack this evening.
Separate investigations have been opened for ‘attempted voluntary homicide’ and ‘attempted voluntary homicide of police officers’.
