In a suspected racist attack amidst the outrage over the beheading of the Paris teacher, two Muslim women were stabbed repeatedly under the Eiffel Tower on Sunday night by two white women who called them “dirty Arabs”.
The French police have arrested the suspects, who are described as being white women of “European descent” and now face attempted murder charges, according to city prosecutors. The police claim that an argument about dogs allegedly devolved into violence and racist insults.
Two women of European appearance attacked Muslim women after they asked them to leash their dogs
According to one of the victims, the attackers had taken out a knife after refusing to leash her dogs and attacked her on the skull, arms and ribs. The victims have been identified as French women from Algerian background named as Kenza and Amel.
“We were out for a walk. At the ground level of Eiffel Tower, there is a small dark park. We were strolling in the park when two dogs came towards us,” Kenza told Liberation newspaper while adding, ” the children got scared of the dogs, prompting my cousin, Amel, to ask the two women to leash their dogs.”
After they refused, one of them slashed her knife at Kenza, injuring her and then attacked her cousin.
As per reports, one of the victims was stabbed six times and endured a punctured lung. The other victim had her hand severely injured and required surgery.
Witnesses of the macabre incident claimed that they heard shouts of “dirty Arabs” and “go back to your own country” by the assailants. Two local shop owners reportedly intervened and held one of the attackers down until the police arrived at the spot. The second suspect was arrested later.
The gruesome beheading of Paris teacher by an Islamist terrorist
The Sunday’s attack came days after the murder of Samuel Paty, who was beheaded by an Islamist terrorist in the Paris suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine for showcasing cartoons of Prophet Mohammed to his students at College du Bois d’Aulne. Samuel Paty, a history teacher, showed the cartoons to his students on October 9 during a civics class on freedom of speech.
The gruesome attack was executed by a Muslim teenager of Russian origin, Abdoullakh Abouyezidovitch A. He stabbed the 47-year-old teacher in his throat, right outside the school, while shouting “Allahu Akbar”. He was later shot dead during an encounter with the police. French President Emanuel Macron had condemned the barbaric attack and had dubbed it as ‘Islamist terrorist attack.’