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Man Shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ Stabs Mother, Sister To Death In France

REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer

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Will Racke Immigration and Foreign Policy Reporter
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A man armed with “several” knives stabbed his mother and sister to death at their home in a Paris suburb Thursday, French authorities said.

The attacker, who has been identified as a 36-year-old man, reportedly shouted “Allahu Akbar” during the rampage. He was shot dead by police after he emerged from the residence and threatened officers, French newspaper Le Parisien reported.

French police are not treating the attack as a terrorist incident at this time, according to Interior Minister Gerard Collomb. The attacker had been flagged by authorities for glorifying Islamic terrorism but also suffered from “serious psychiatric problems,” Collomb said.

Shortly after the attack, the Islamic State claimed responsibility in a posting to its Amaq news agency. The terror group referred to the attacker as an “Islamic State fighter” but did not provide any evidence to support the claim.

The incident occurred in Trappes, a town about 20 miles southwest of Paris. Though it is situated in a generally wealthy area, it is a poor, economically depressed town that is home to a large population of immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa.

As many as 50 people from Trappes have traveled to join jihadist groups Syria and Iraq, the Telegraph reported, citing French intelligence.

France has been on high alert in recent years due to a string of Islamist terror attacks, including two with an extraordinarily high number of casualties: the November 2015 attacks that killed 130 in Paris, and the 2016 Bastille Day truck attack in Nice that killed more than 80.

More recently, a Morocco-born gunman stormed a market in southern France in March, killing two people before being shot dead by police. Then, in May, a Chechnya-born knife man went on a stabbing rampage in central Paris, killing two people and wounding several others before being killed by responding officers. (RELATED: Paris Attacker Is Chechnya-Born French Citizen Known To Authorities)

ISIS claimed responsibility for both attacks.

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