On Saturday evening, December 2, at around 9:15 pm, a motorist raised the alarm while driving near the Bir-Hakeim bridge in Paris's 15th arrondissement. After dialing the police emergency number, she reported witnessing an attack by a man dressed in black and carrying "maybe a knife." "Many people are running," she added. A cab driver, who witnessed the scene, shouted at the man, who cried out "Allah Akbar" and fled.
Two teams of police from the 15th and 7th arrondissements immediately intervened to find that an individual matching this description was on a bridge across the Seine heading towards the 16th arrondissement. Just beforehand, Armand Rajabpour-Myiandoab had struck a 23-year-old man walking with two friends twice with a hammer and four times with a knife. The victim, a dual citizen of Germany and the Philippines, died shortly before 10:30 pm after receiving unsuccessful first aid treatment.
The attacker then carried out two further assaults. A British man was violently struck on the head with a hammer at 20 Avenue du Président Kennedy, in the 16th arrondissement. Another man walking with his wife and child, a French national, was also hit with a hammer.
Chased by the police, Rajabpour-Myiandoab hid in a square. At 9:30 pm, the police successfully subdued him with two bursts from a taser. He first threatened to set off an explosive belt – it subsequently emerged he was not wearing one – and shouted "Allah Akbar" once more, before collapsing and being arrested. "The police intervened with courage and great composure (...) They were able to prevent this chain of events from continuing," said Paris Police Prefect Laurent Nuñez on BFM-TV on Sunday evening. A total of 10 police officers took part in the operation, including "four who were in direct contact with the assailant," according to a police source.
The British victim was evacuated to the Cochin hospital, in the 14th arrondissement, his life was not in danger but he suffered severe damage to his right eyeball. The other injured man was treated by the fire department before being transferred to Georges-Pompidou Hospital, in the 15th arrondissement. The two people who had witnessed the deadly attack on their friend were "particularly shocked," said national anti-terrorist prosecutor Jean-François Ricard at a press conference on Sunday evening, and "have not been able to be interviewed for the moment."
On Sunday evening, the assailant was still being held in police custody – along with three people from his close circle – by the anti-terrorist section of the Criminal Brigade of the Paris Police Prefecture, one of the two departments jointly tasked by the National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor's Office and the General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI).
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