Dramatic moment armed police arrest ‘Islamist’ who stabbed tourist to death in knife attack by the Eiffel Tower – as French officials reveal suspect is Iranian convicted terrorist

• Armand Rajabpour-Miyandoab was known to authorities as a radical Islamist
• He was previously sent to prison for four years in 2016 for plotting an attack
• He was undergoing ‘psychiatric and neurological treatment’

This is the moment armed police arrested an alleged knifeman who killed a tourist and injured two others, including a British father, as it was revealed he is a French-Iranian convicted terrorist. 

Armand Rajabpour-Miyandoab, 26, was released from prison in 2020, and left to live at home with his parents while undergoing ‘psychiatric and neurological treatment’.

On Sunday he was under armed guard and facing multiple charges including murder following a bloodbath close to the Eiffel Tower on Saturday night.

Video of the arrest shows him slowly backing away from several French police officers while carrying what appears to be a hammer. 

Two officers stride towards him as he backs away on the corner of a street in Paris. 

Though he was reported to have screamed ‘Allahu Akbar’ shortly before his arrest, the video shared with MailOnline did not show this. 

Reports said that he was taken down after police officers immobilised him with a Taser. 

Armand Rajabpour-Miyandoab shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ as he was taken in by Paris police, who immobilised him with a stun gun

Armand Rajabpour-Miyandoab, 26, (pictured) was released from prison in 2020, and left to live at home with his parents while undergoing ‘psychiatric and neurological treatment’

The French Iranian knifeman who allegedly stabbed a tourist to death and wounded two others including an Englishman in Paris has now been named and pictured, and is a well-known convicted terrorist with severe psychiatric problems.

READ MORE: Tourist is stabbed to death and ‘British man is knifed in front of his wife and child by assailant who shouted Allahu Akbar before attacking people in central Paris near the Eiffel Tower’ – as suspect is arrested

Rajabpour-Miyandoab allegedly used a knife and hammer to kill a 24-year-old German-Filipino tourist, before attacking two more as-yet-unnamed victims, including a British father. 

Armand Rajabpour-Miyandoab was in 2016 convicted to four years in prison for terrorist conspiracy.

The son of two Iranian refugees who was born in France, he had converted to Islam in 2015 after being radicalised online by an ISIS supporter, according to prosecution documents.

Rajabpour-Miyandoab was well known for forging online links with other terrorists including Larossi Aballa, who went on to stab two police officers to death in Magnanville in June 2016.

Another Facebook friend was Adel Kermiche, one of the perpetrators of the stabbing to death of a Catholic priest in Saint-Étienne du Rouvray in the same year.

Many of those linked with such crimes were, like Rajabpour-Miyandoab, on an S-File, which means they are officially under surveillance.

Rajabpour-Miyandoab later claimed to have completed a ‘deradicalization programme’, claiming he had lost interest in terrorism.

He was let out of prison early in 2020, and put on a treatment programme for ‘psychiatric and neurological problems,’ according to an investigating source.

In court in 2018, he said: ‘Islamism was ruining my life,’ while claiming he had taken to drinking beer and eating pork – activities which are barred to practising Muslims.

But online activity showed that Rajabpour-Miyandoab was still researching how to make phosphorus bombs, and posted a video of himself disguised, and making political statements.

He regularly bemoaned the number of Muslims who were being killed in global conflicts including Afghanistan and Israel-Hamas.

At one point he accused France of ‘being complicit’ in ‘war crimes’ committed by Israeli forces against thousands of massacred Palestinian civilians.

During his time in custody he had frequently complained about ‘Muslims being killed in Afghanistan and Palestine’.

He had also referenced the current Israel-Hamas conflict, claiming that ‘France was complicit’ with Israel in the massacre of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza.

The attacker, who has been named locally as Armand R., shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ as he was taken in by Paris police, who immobilised him with a stun gun

The deadly attack in central Paris during a busy weekend night came with the country on its highest alert for attacks

The attack has rocked France, which has seen tensions rise amid the Israel-Hamas conflict

Tensions have risen in France, home to large Jewish and Muslim populations, following Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7 and Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip

 He fatally stabbed the as-yet-unnamed German tourist, born in the Philippines in 1999, with a knife in the back and shoulder, which led to a cardiorespiratory arrest before he passed away.

READ MORE: French Iranian knifeman accused of stabbing German tourist to death and wounding two others in frenzied ‘Islamist’ attack by Eiffel Tower – as video shows moment armed police arrested suspect

The second victim of the attack was British, and was out walking with his wife when Armand R. attacked him from behind.

‘The family were on the Avenue President Kennedy when they were set upon,’ said an investigating source, who added: ‘A hammer was used to hit the man over the head.’

The Englishman was rushed to hospital, where his condition was later described as ‘stable’. A third victim was also badly hurt in a hammer attack, said the source. 

The UK’s Foreign Office said today: ‘We are supporting a British man who was injured in Paris, and are in contact with the local authorities.’ 

The area by Bir Hakeim bridge, usually thronging with tourists and locals, was cordoned off by police and bright with the flashing lights of security forces and emergency services.

A taxi driver who witnessed the scene intervened, Darmanin said. 

‘He had threatened them very violently… he will now have to answer for his actions before justice,’ Darmanin said.

The attack has rocked France, which has seen tensions rise amid the Israel-Hamas conflict.  

President Emmanuel Macron said he was sending his condolences to the family of a German killed in the ‘terrorist attack’.

A police source said that the attacker was known for psychiatric disorders and had said he could not stand Muslims being killed in the world. Pictured: French police secures the access to the Bir-Hakeim bridge

A man has been stabbed to death while a British tourist is reportedly among two others badly injured after a knifeman screaming ‘Allahu Akbar’ launched a frenzied attack in Paris. Pictured: Police secures the access to the Bir-Hakeim bridge near the Eiffel Tower

A police source said that the attacker was known for psychiatric disorders and had said he could not stand Muslims being killed in the world

Macron, writing on X, thanked security forces for their quick arrest of the suspected attacker and said justice should be served ‘in the name of the French people’. 

‘Paris is in mourning after this terrible attack,’ Transport Minister Clement Beaune wrote on X.

Joseph S., a 37-year-old supermarket manager who asked not to give his last name, witnessed the scene as he sat in a bar, and said he heard screams and people shouting ‘help, help’ as they ran. 

He said a man wielding an object attacked a man who had fallen down, and within 10 minutes the police arrived. 

One person died and another was injured, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on social media platform X

Police officers stand guard. Officers said there was no early indication as to the motive of the stabbing

France has suffered several attacks by Islamist extremists, including the November 2015 suicide and gun attacks in Paris claimed by the Islamic State group in which 130 people were killed.

There had been a relative lull in recent years, even as officials have warned that the threat remains.

But tensions have risen in France, home to large Jewish and Muslim populations, following Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7 and Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Security in Paris is also under particular scrutiny as it gears up to host the 2024 Summer Olympic Games.

In October, teacher Dominique Bernard was killed in the northern French town of Arras by a young radicalised Islamist from Russia’s Caucasus region.

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