❓WHAT HAPPENED: A Tunisian migrant was shot and killed by police in Marseille, France, after stabbing multiple people while reciting verses from the Islamic Quran.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: The Tunisian migrant, Marseille police, and five stab victims, including one critically injured.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The afternoon of September 2 in Marseille, France.
💬KEY QUOTE: “A man of Tunisian nationality, in a legal situation, had been evicted from the Amira hotel in which he was staying in the Belsunce district, because he did not pay his rent.” – Marseille prosecutor Nicolas Bessone.
🎯IMPACT: Five people injured, heightened scrutiny over European immigration policies, and another increase in concerns over national security in France.
A Tunisian migrant was shot and killed by French police in Marseille on September 2 after stabbing several people in a violent attack that began with a dispute at a hotel. According to Marseille prosecutor Nicolas Bessone, five people were injured in the stabbing spree, including one who remains in critical condition. Authorities said the man began the attack after an argument with a downtown hotel owner over unpaid room charges.
“A man of Tunisian nationality, in a legal situation, had been evicted from the Amira hotel in which he was staying in the Belsunce district, because he did not pay his rent,” Prosecutor Bessone said and added that the man appeared to strike people at random.
During the confrontation, the suspect reportedly recited verses from the Islamic Quran. Police initially attempted to use a taser to subdue him, but when he failed to submit and continued to pose a threat, they resorted to lethal force. French newspaper Le Figaro noted that the suspect had previously been under judicial supervision, which prohibited him from possessing weapons. Meanwhile, Le Parisien noted that local intelligence services had flagged the man for making anti-Semitic remarks.
The stabbing spree has raised fresh concerns over public safety and national security across Europe, where a pattern of violent stabbings involving migrants and second-generation citizens born to migrant parents has emerged in recent years. For instance, in May 2025, twelve people were wounded, several critically, when a female suspect carried out a mass stabbing at Hamburg Central Station in Germany.
Other high-profile cases include a February 2025 stabbing in Villach, Austria, where a 23-year-old Syrian man killed a 14-year-old boy and injured five others. Authorities later discovered an Islamic State flag and a recorded pledge of allegiance to the jihadist group in the suspect’s apartment. In January 2025, an Afghan asylum seeker in Aschaffenburg, Germany, attacked a kindergarten group, killing one child and injuring several others, including a teacher and two passersby. That suspect had a criminal history and had previously been ordered deported.
In August 2024, three people were killed and eight wounded in Solingen, Germany, when a Syrian carried out a stabbing attack during a city festival. Authorities linked the attack to radical Islamist motives. Earlier, in January 2023, a stateless refugee originally from Gaza stabbed passengers aboard a regional train in Brokstedt, Germany, killing two people and injuring six more.
European crime data indicates that migrants are vastly overrepresented in violent and sexual crimes generally, not just Islamist attacks.
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