Biodun.BBC: "Allahu Akbar"

18 June 2018 - 02H13 GMT/UTC/ZULU TIME

by Natalie de Vallieres and Biodun Iginla, France24, MARSEILLE

MARSEILLE -

Two people were hurt in a town in southern France on Sunday when a woman shouting "Allahu akbar" (God is greatest) attacked them in a supermarket with a boxcutter knife, prosecutors said.

A customer was struck in the chest during the late-morning assault in La Seyne-sur-Mer, outside the Mediterranean port of Toulon, but the wound is not life-threatening, prosecutor Bernard Marchal told us at France24.

A woman working at a checkout counter was also cut over her eye. Both casualties were taken to hospital.

ADVERTISING

inRead invented by Teads

"It appears to be an isolated case by a person with known psychological problems," Marchal said, "though that doesn't exclude the possibility that she may have been radicalised."

"Several witnesses have quoted her as saying it was Allah who told her to do it, that they were all miscreants and that she wanted the police to kill her," the prosecutor said.

He added that "contrary to what was said at the start, she was not wearing a veil, but a black tunic over black trousers and black glasses."

France has been on high alert following a string of jihadist attacks since early 2015, often by people who have become radicalised or claim to have acted in the name of the Islamic State group.

The 24-year-old assailant, who did not have a police record, was overpowered by a customer and two supermarket employees and taken into custody.

"I grabbed her wrists to get hold of the cutter," said the customer, an electrician who gave only his first name, Sebastien.

"I asked her 'Why did you do it.' She did not answer."

The woman "was in a panic, she was afraid, she did not understand what was happening to her, she had no strength left," Sebastien said.

Police later searched her home to determine if she had any links to the Islamic State group, but Marchal said they found only an old Koran and an Algerian flag. A computer was seized from the studio where she lived a few kilometres (miles) from the shop.

"We don't yet know if this is a terrorist act, but in any case it was terrifying," Marchal said.

The woman, who carried a physical handicap card, would undergo a psychiatric assessment.

More than 240 people have been killed in jihadist attacks since the massacre at the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine in Paris in January 2015.

Last month a knifeman shouting "Allahu akbar" killed one person and wounded four others during a Saturday night attack in central Paris.

In March, a Franco-Moroccan man shot dead three people, including a policeman, at a supermarket in the southern town of Trebes before being killed by police. He had also killed the passenger of a car he hijacked in nearby Carcassonne.

Media captionSocial media footage captured the sound of gunshots

by Isabelle Roussel and Biodun Iginla, BBC News, Liège, Belgium

The man who shot dead two police officers and a civilian in the Belgian city of Liège had killed someone the night before the attacks, the country's interior minister says.

Jan Jambon said the gunman, named as Benjamin Herman, had murdered a man - a former prisoner - he met while in jail.

He added that the authorities were working to establish a motive.

The gunman also took a female cleaner hostage at a school before being killed by police.

Police sources quoted in local media said the man was heard shouting "Allahu Akbar" ("God is greatest" in Arabic).

Belgian broadcaster RTBF said the gunman was let out from prison on temporary release on Monday where he had been serving time on drug offences. It said he might have been radicalised while in jail.

"There are signs he was radicalised in prison, but is it that radicalisation which drove him to commit these acts?" Mr Jambon said on RTL radio.

"It could have been because he had nothing to look forward to, because he also killed someone the night before, the guy's psychology and the fact... he may have been on drugs."

What happened?

The shooting unfolded late on Tuesday morning near a cafe in the city centre.

Prosecutors said the man followed and "savagely" attacked the two women officers from behind with a knife before taking a gun from them and opening fire.

He also shot dead a 22-year-old man who was sitting in the passenger seat of a parked car as he walked to a nearby school, where he briefly took a member of staff hostage.

A map showing the site of a shooting in Belgium

Armed police officers with shields, helmets and bulletproof vests then arrived at the scene and "intervened".

The attacker began firing at the officers in an attempt to escape. Two officers were shot in the leg, leaving one officer in a serious condition.

Two other officers received injuries to their arms before the attacker was shot dead, prosecutors said.

Footage on social media showed people running to safety as several gunshots rang out. Children at the school were moved to safety.

What's the wider situation?

An armed policeman stands guard at the scene following a shooting in Liege, Belgium, 29 May 2018 — Image captionAn armed policeman stands guard at the scene on Tuesday

Belgium remains on alert after a series of jihadist attacks in the country and in neighbouring France.

A Brussels-based cell was involved in the 2015 Paris attacks which left 130 people dead in several locations.

Brussels itself saw three suicide bombings in March 2016, with 32 people killed. Both the Paris and Brussels attacks were claimed by the Islamic State-group.

Later in 2016 a man attacked two police officers with machetes while shouting "Allahu Akbar" before being shot dead.