Mulhouse stabbing attack

On 22 February 2025, a man armed with a knife and a screwdriver attacked people at a market near the covered canal in the eastern French city of Mulhouse. He targeted police officers on patrol and a bystander who tried to intervene. One man, Lino Sousa Loureiro, a 69-year-old Portuguese national who had lived in Mulhouse since 1992, was stabbed to death. Two police officers were seriously wounded, one struck in the neck and one in the chest, and five further officers sustained minor injuries during the arrest. Witnesses reported that the assailant shouted "Allahu Akbar" during the attack.

The suspect was arrested at the scene and identified by French authorities as a 37-year-old Algerian national who had arrived in France in 2014 and was on a terrorist watchlist. He had been convicted in December 2023 of incitement to terrorism and was under an order to leave the country, but French officials said repeated attempts to deport him to Algeria had failed because Algeria refused to accept him. France's national anti-terrorism prosecutor's office (PNAT) opened a terrorism investigation. President Emmanuel Macron said there was no doubt the stabbing was an Islamist terrorist act, and France 24 and the BBC reported the case as an act of Islamist terrorism.

This was an act of jihadist (Islamist) terrorism carried out by a lone attacker, as stated plainly by French authorities, including President Macron and the national anti-terrorism prosecutor's office. It was not foreign-state hybrid activity, sabotage, or Russian-linked operations. The case highlights the persistent threat from radicalised individuals already known to security services, as well as the practical difficulty French authorities faced in deporting a convicted, watchlisted suspect whose home country declined to accept his return.