A wheelchair-bound Christian man died after an assailant stabbed him in the neck in Lyon, France.
Ashur Sarnaya, 45, was livestreaming on TikTok Sept. 10 near his apartment when an awaiting attacker sprang upon him with a knife, according to the Catholic News Agency.
A witness later saw the attacker, dressed in dark clothes and a hood, fleeing on foot, the French news outlet Le Progrès reported.
Medical personnel arrived around 10:30 p.m. and found Sarnaya in cardiac arrest, but were unable to save him.
Since the attack, recent reports show no sign that police have caught the suspect.
“At this stage, we are not prioritizing any theory; nothing points us in the direction of a solid line of inquiry, whether criminal, political, religious, or drug-related,” police told French news outlet Agence France Presse on Sept. 11. “[Sarnaya] was very active on social media; we are working on that.”
Sarnaya had moved to Lyon in 2014, after fleeing the Islamic State in Iraq.
He often hosted livestreams in Arabic, in which he talked about the Christian faith and shared others’ testimonies.
Below is a video of one of his earlier broadcasts, shared on the social media platform X.
Lyon (69) : Ashur Sarnaya, chrétien assyrien irakien en fauteuil, poignardé en plein live TikTok religieux — dans sa dernière vidéo (mars), il se disait brimé par des musulmans pic.twitter.com/AtfTqt6FYq
— Fdesouche.com est une revue de presse (@F_Desouche) September 11, 2025
“Ashur was a normal person. He went live on TikTok to spread the word of God. He had no enemies, no problems with anyone,” his sister told RMC BFM.
To Sarnaya, persecution wasn’t anything new.
He sometimes shared examples of his content being blocked or suspended after Muslim users reported him, Catholic News Agency reported.
But it went beyond censorship.
In March, a group of Muslims reportedly assaulted him.
Sarnaya and his sister had lived in the same apartment for more than 10 years.
She wasn’t home when she received the news about her brother’s death.
“I went out to do some shopping, and when I came home, I saw that all my friends had called me several times. They told me to go see what was going on. When I got there, he was dead. He was on the ground, there were lots of people, the police, the firefighters …” she told RMC BFM.
A graphic screen shot showing Sarnaya’s final live stream and its violent conclusion is circulating on social media; viewer discretion is advised.
“He spent his last moments doing exactly what he loved: spreading the gospel,“ Sarnaya’s cousin said, according to International Christian Concern. “In my opinion, he is a martyr, and his faith will always be an inspiration.”
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