Emmanuel Macron has vowed to ‘never give up’ the fight against Islamist terrorism after a female police worker was killed by a knifeman who shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ in France today.
Named by police as Stephanie M, the 49-year-old mother-of-two was slashed in the throat by a Tunisian delivery driver at 2.20pm today as she worked in a police station in the leafy Paris suburb of Rambouillet.
French prosecutors have opened a terror probe after the killing which was carried out by the 36-year-old who arrived in France illegally in 2009 before he was given leave to remain in 2019.
Stephanie, an admin worker, who had worked for the police since 1993, had just ‘popped out of the station to change the parking disc on her car’ when she was pounced on by the attacker in the lobby.
Investigators said the killer had been scouting the site before the attack in broad daylight.
Emmanuel Macron, who was in Chad today for the funeral of their late president Idriss Deby, said in a statement: ‘She was a police officer. Stephanie was killed in her Rambouillet police station, on the already damaged land of Yvelines.
‘The nation is with her family, her colleagues and the police. In the fight against Islamist terrorism, we will not give up.’
A female police worker in France has been killed by a knifeman who was then shot dead by her colleagues. Pictured: officers stand near the police station after the attack
Rambouillet is a quiet commune southwest of Paris and is known for its famous historic chateau
France’s counter-terrorism unit has taken over the investigation into the killing.
Francois Bersani, a police union official, said the attacker slipped into the building before shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’, meaning ‘God is greatest’ in Arabic.
The attacker was not previously known to police or anti-terrorist authorities and had recently moved to Rambouillet having previously lived in the Val-de-Marne.
The murdered woman was the mother of two children aged 13 and 18.
Rambouillet is a quiet and leafy commune southwest of Paris and is known for its historic chateau.
Yvan Assioma, of the Alliance Police Union, said his colleague ‘died at the scene’, describing her as a ‘mother of two children who was aged 49.’
Emmanuel Macron, who was in Chad today for the funeral of their late president Idriss Deby, has said he will ‘never give up’ the fight against Islamist terrorism
The attacker was not previously known to police or anti-terrorist authorities and had recently moved to Rambouillet having previously lived in the Val-de-Marne
The French prime minister Jean Castex headed to the police station this afternoon following the attack, and he said in a statement: ‘The Republic has just lost one of its daily heroines in a barbaric act of infinite cowardice.
‘To her relatives, I offer my support on behalf of the entire nation. To our security forces, I want to tell them I share their emotion and their indignation.
Marine Le Pen said: ‘The same horrors keep happening, the same infinite sadness when thinking of the relatives and colleagues of this policewoman, the same profiles of people who are guilty of this barbarism, the same Islamist motives…
‘We can’t take it anymore.’
The 49-year-old mother-of-two was slashed in the throat by the Tunisian on Friday afternoon as she worked
Local MP Aurore Bergé, said: ‘Whenever our law enforcement agencies are attacked, it is France that is attacked. Rambouillet is a town that is not at all used to being subjected to violence.
‘This reminds us that our law enforcement agencies put their lives at risk every morning when they go to work.’
It follows six years of savage Islamist attacks in France, including the beheading of schoolteacher Samuel Paty by a Russian-born terrorist in October last year.
The deadliest single terrorist attack ever in the country came in November 2015 when 130 people were killed in Paris.
Suicide bombers pledging allegiance to ISIS targeted the Stade de France, cafes, restaurants and the Bataclan music venue, where 90 died.
The administrative agent, who had worked for the police since 1993, had recently returned from her lunch break when she was attacked
Yvan Assioma, of the Alliance Police Union, said his unidentified colleagues ‘died at the scene’, describing her as a ‘mother of two children who was aged 49’
Earlier in the year, two Paris-born gunmen linked to Al-Qaeda broke into the offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine, leaving 12 dead and 11 wounded.
In July 2016, 86 people were killed and more than 400 injured when a 19-tonne truck was deliberately driven into crowds on the seafront promenade at Nice, in the South of France.
The terrorist turned out to be a radicalised Tunisian immigrant who was shot dead by police.
During the same month, two Isis terrorists murdered an 86-year-old Catholic priest during a church service in Normandy.
There have been frequent knife attacks on the forces of law and order, leading to the deaths of serving police.
In October 2019, a radicalised computer operative working at the Paris Prefecture in central Paris stabbed four of his colleagues to death.
The attacker – who was also shot dead – turned out to be a Muslim convert who kept extremist Al-Qaeda and Islamic State literature and images on his computer.