A man described as a “former psychiatric patient” viciously attacked seven people in France on Wednesday while screaming “Allahu Akbar.”
Described as “enraged,” the 42-year-old attacked shoppers in the French city of Toulouse before several nearby police officers subdued him.
Three police officers were treated for injuries from the attack after the assailant punched and kicked them; two additional victims were transported to local hospitals with minor injuries.
“We were chatting and he jumped on us. He first caught my son and then beat my daughter. We ran,” one man told local media.
Reports by local media indicate the man “is well-known to authorities” and is believed to have been a psychiatric patient that was recently released from a mental health institution.
The French publication, La Dépêche 31, obtained exclusive video of the alleged assailant being wrestled to the ground and escorted into an ambulance:
A common theme in what appear to be small-scale or lone-wolf terrorist attacks in Europe is for the media to report, almost instantly, that is was a case of “mental illness.”
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