On 3 February 2017, an Egyptian national in France on a tourist visa was shot as he rushed a group of French soldiers guarding a principal entrance to the
Louvre Museum
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
, France, with a machete. One soldier was injured in the fight. The soldiers were patrolling the museum as part of
Opération Sentinelle
Opération Sentinelle is a French military operation with 10,000 soldiers and 4,700 police and gendarmes deployed since the aftermath of the January 2015 Île-de-France attacks, with the objective of protecting the deemed sensitive "points" of th ...
, guarding the
Carrousel du Louvre, in which an underground shopping mall also serves as a gift shop, ticket sales office, and public entrance to the museum.
The attacker, identified as Abdullah al-Hamahmy, was confirmed by French authorities to have shouted "
Allahu Akbar
Allah (; ar, الله, translit=Allāh, ) is the common Arabic word for God. In the English language, the word generally refers to God in Islam. The word is thought to be derived by contraction from '' al- ilāh'', which means "the god", a ...
" during the attack, and although not having direct links, to have sympathised with and posted numerous messages on
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
in support of the
Islamic State
An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...
, including calling for people to "fight in the cause of Allah and kill."
French President François Hollande announced the attack was terrorist in nature.
Attack
The suspect, who was carrying two bags containing spray paint and two machetes, is alleged to have attacked and injured a soldier with a machete who was guarding the museum, shouting "Allahu Akbar".
Another soldier on security patrol fired five shots at him, injuring him in the stomach. He was arrested and taken for medical treatment.
Immediately after his arrest, the suspect told authorities that he was carrying spray paint in order to deface the museum's artwork, an act that he regarded as a "symbolic" attack on France.
Suspect
Anti-terror investigators dismissed the idea that the attacker was a "lone wolf", and believed he had been radicalized over a long time.
French authorities say that no group has claimed the attempted attack and no link to extremism was found during a search of the apartment. The suspect posted on his Twitter account in Arabic in the minutes before the failed attack in which he referred once to
ISIL
An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...
and also wrote, "In the name of Allah... for our brothers in Syria and fighters across the world".
The
Egyptian Interior Ministry
The Ministry of Interior of Egypt is a part of the Cabinet of Egypt. It is responsible for law enforcement in Egypt.
The Ministry of Interior directs the Central Security Forces, around 410,000 in 2012; the National Police, around 500,000; and ...
has identified the attacker as 29-year old
Egyptian
Egyptian describes something of, from, or related to Egypt.
Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to:
Nations and ethnic groups
* Egyptians, a national group in North Africa
** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of years of ...
national Abdullah Reda al-Hamamy, an identity confirmed by the suspect,
who had entered France on a one-month
tourist visa issued in
Dubai
Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...
on 26 January.
[ The French Public Minister, François Molins, confirmed the perpetrator was identified after a Visabio search.] The suspect refused to speak in the first interview with investigators after being placed in detention at a hospital, but confirmed his identity in a subsequent interview. The suspect's father denied allegations of his son being a terrorist. However, investigators examining his social media accounts state that he has "sympathy for the ideas of ISIS".
Paris Match
''Paris Match'' () is a French-language weekly news magazine. It covers major national and international news along with celebrity lifestyle features.
History and profile
A sports news magazine, ''Match l'intran'' (a play on '' L'Intransigeant ...
called the suspect "the tourist terrorist," and described an upwardly mobile professional, from a wealthy family, graduate of a prestigious university, with a seven-month-old son and a pregnant wife, staying in Paris for ten days at a prestigious address near the Champs-Elysées, sending home artsy selfies with Paris landmarks from his iPhone 7
The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus are smartphones that were designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. They are the tenth generation of the iPhone. They were announced on September 7, 2016, at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Fr ...
. Nonetheless, the magazine disclosed that the suspect was carrying "bombs of aerosol paint" intended to "disfigure the masterpieces of the ouvremuseum".
In 2018, the press disclosed that the attacker's final message on Twitter was "No negotiation possible, no compromise, no ointment to pass, and certainly no return possible. There is no peace in war." He remained jailed at the Bois-d'Arcy prison.
On June 24, 2021, Abdallah El-Hamahmy was sentenced to 30 years in prison with a security period of 2/3 as well as a definitive ban from French territory. The representative of the National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor's Office underlines the preparation of the attack from abroad and the persistence of El-Hamahmy's ideological adherence to Islamist theses.
Aftermath
French President
The president of France, officially the president of the French Republic (french: Président de la République française), is the executive head of state of France, and the commander-in-chief of the French Armed Forces. As the presidency is ...
François Hollande "said there was 'no doubt' the attack was terrorist in nature". The attack heightened anxieties in a city already reeling from a spate of recent attacks, including the November 2015 Paris attacks. The city continues to increase security against terrorist attacks at major tourist attractions.
The attack exacerbated fears of further decline in tourism because approximately 70% of visitors to the Louvre are foreign nationals and attendance fell by 16% in 2001, due to the September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...
in the US; were off 7.5% in 2015 after the November 2015 Paris attacks and fell a further 15% in 2016, in the wake of the Bastille Day attack. The attack was being investigated as a possible act of terrorism.
References
{{Islamic terrorism in Europe
2017 in Paris
Attacks on museums
February 2017 crimes in Europe
February 2017 events in France
Louvre
Opération Sentinelle
Stabbing attacks in 2017
Terrorist incidents in France in 2017
Terrorist incidents involving knife attacks
Islamic terrorism in Paris
Stabbing attacks in France