Terror attack in Alsace: perpetrator should be deported

By Rachel Boßmeyer

Mulhouse - France's Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau (64) is calling for consequences following the suspected terrorist attack in Mulhouse, Alsace.

In future, he wants to detain dangerous people who are required to leave the country not just for a limited period of time, but until they are deported, as Retailleau said after the attack in the town of 100,000 inhabitants near the border with Baden-Württemberg.

The police arrested an Algerian as the suspected perpetrator. As his home country had blocked his deportation, the minister is now calling for tougher action.

During the attack on Saturday afternoon, the assailant attacked several people near a market in Mulhouse (Mulhouse) and shouted "Allahu Akbar" (meaning "God is greatest" in Arabic), according to the anti-terror prosecutor's office.

According to the interior ministry, he was armed with a knife and a screwdriver. President Emmanuel Macron (47) spoke of an Islamist-motivated terrorist attack. Investigations are underway for homicide and attempted homicide related to terrorism.

A 69-year-old passer-by from Portugal died in the attack. Three people were injured - according to the investigators, they were police officers; Interior Minister Retailleau spoke of employees of the town hall for parking lot surveillance.

The suspected perpetrator was overpowered around ten minutes after the attack began and taken into police custody.

According to the Ministry of the Interior, he is a 37-year-old Algerian with mental health problems who is required to leave the country. France had tried several times to take the man, who had been convicted of glorifying terrorism, out of the country. However, Algeria had not taken back its own citizen, who had entered France irregularly in 2014.

Most recently, the Algerian was under a kind of house arrest and should have reported to the police every day. However, he did not do so on Saturday. Interior Minister Retailleau now wants to take a tougher line and is threatening Algeria with tightening visa rules and abolishing certain special rights for people from the former French colony.

Retailleau said that the French could not understand why a migrant who had come to France irregularly, who had a criminal record and was mentally ill, should be able to move freely. Such people should be detained until they are deported. Currently, deportation detention in France is limited in time.

The attack caused horror in the country, which has repeatedly been the target of terrorist attacks in recent years. President Macron expressed his condolences to the victims and their families. The mayor of Mulhouse, Michèle Lutz (66), wrote on Facebook: "The horror has gripped our city."