Terrorism in France

Terrorism in France refers to the terrorist attacks that have targeted the country and its population during the 20th and 21st centuries. Terrorism, in this case is much related to the country's history, international affairs and political approach. Legislation has been set up by lawmakers to fight terrorism in France.

CBC News reported in December 2018 that the number of people killed in terrorist attacks in France since 2015 was 249, with the number of wounded at 928.[1]

Terrorist incidents map of France 1970–2015. Paris, Corsica and Southwestern France are major places of incidents. A total of 2,616 incidents are plotted

Terrorism deaths in France recorded in the Global Terrorism Database. The spike in 2015 is over 6 times the previous maximum since 1970 and is indicated by a number off the scale.

History

Deaths and Injuries due to Terrorist incidents in France by Year[2][3]

Year	Number of incidents	Deaths	Injuries
2020	9	7	10
2019	3	4	16
2018	3	10	30
2017	9	3	16
2016	26	95	470
2015	36	162	443
2014	14	1	15
2013	12	0	5
2012	65	8	8
2011	8	0	4
2010	3	0	0
2009	9	0	11
2008	13	0	1
2007	16	3	8
2006	34	1	3
2005	33	0	11
2004	11	0	10
2003	34	0	21
2002	32	0	4
2001	21	0	16
2000	28	4	1
1999	46	0	2
1998	12	1	0
1997	130	0	4
1996	270	18	114
1995	71	19	177
1994	97	7	22
1993	12	0	0
1992	126	9	12
1991	137	6	5
1990	30	3	3
1989	25	3	2
1988	54	6	19
1987	87	5	8
1986	95	25	306
1985	106	17	83
1984	145	15	57
1983	121	20	186
1982	62	17	144
1981	66	8	78
1980	94	20	74
1979	212	11	41
1978	59	21	17
1977	53	3	7
1976	58	7	10
1975	39	3	25
1974	29	3	41
1973	14	5	20
1972	9	1	0
1971	0	0	0
1970	0	0	0
Total	2,654	547	2,559

Islamic terrorism

France its first occurrences with religious extremism in the 1980s due to French involvement in the Lebanese civil war. In the 1990s, a series of attacks on French soil were executed by the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria (GIA).

In the 1990–2010 time span, France experienced repeated attacks linked to international jihadist movements.[4] Le Monde reported on 26 July 2016 that "Islamist Terrorism" had caused 236 dead in France in the preceding 18-month period.[5]

In the 2015–2018 timespan in France, 249 people been killed in terrorist attacks and 928 wounded in a total of 22 terrorist attacks.[6]

The deadly attacks in 2015 in France changed the issue of Islamist radicalization from a security threat to also constitute a social problem. Prime minister François Hollande and prime minister Manuel Valls saw the fundamental values of the French republic being challenged and called them attacks against secular, enlightenment and democratic values along with "what makes us who we are".[4]

Although jihadists in the 2015-onward timeframe legitimized their attacks with a narrative of reprisal for France's participation in the international coalition fighting the Islamic State, Islamic terrorism in France has other, deeper and older causes. The main reasons France suffers frequent attacks are, in no particular order:[7]

• France's secular domestic policies (Laïcité) which jihadists perceive to be hostile towards Islam. Also, France's status as an officially secular nation and jihadists label France as "the flagship of disbelief".[7]
• France has a strong cultural tradition in comics, which in the context Muhammad cartoons is a question of freedom of expression.[8]
• France has a large Muslim minority[8]
• France's foreign policy towards Muslim countries and jihadist fronts. France is seen as the spearhead directed against jihadist groups in Africa, just as the United States is seen as the main force opposing jihadist groups elsewhere. France's former foreign policies such as that as its colonization of Muslim countries is also brought up in jihadist propaganda, for example, that the influence of French education, culture and political institutions had served to erase the Muslim identity of those colonies and their inhabitants.[7]
• Jihadists consider France as a strong proponent of disbelief. For instance, Marianne, the national emblem of France, is considered as "a false idol" by jihadists and the French to be "idol worshippers". France also has no law against blasphemy and an anticlerical satirical press which is less respectful towards religion than that of the US or the United Kingdom. The French nation state is also perceived as an obstacle towards establishing a caliphate.[7]

In 2020 two Islamic terrorist attacks were foiled by authorities, bringing the total to 33 since 2017 according to Laurent Nuñez, the director of CNRLT, who declared that Sunni Islamist terrorism was a prioritised threat. Nuñez drew parallells between the three attacks of 2020 which all were attacks on "blasphemy and the will to avenge their prophet".[9]

Right-wing terrorism

France has a modern history of right-wing terrorism that dates back to the middle of the 20th century. Historically, right-wing terrorism was tied to rage over the loss of France's colonial possessions in Africa, particularly Algeria. In 1961, the Organisation armée secrète or OAS, a right-wing terrorist group that protested Algerian independence from France, launched a bomb attack on board a Strasbourg–Paris train which killed 28 people.[10]

On 14 December 1973, the far-right Charles Martel Group orchestrated a bomb attack at the Consulate of Algeria, killing 4 people and injuring 20.[11] The group targeted mostly Algerian targets several more times.

In the town of Toulon, a far-right extremist group called SOS-France existed. On 18 August 1986, four members were driving a car carrying explosives, apparently in an attempt to bomb the offices of SOS Racisme. However it exploded while they were still in it, killing all four of them.[12]

In more recent history, far-right extremism in France has been fueled by the rise of anti-immigrant far-right political movements. Neo-Nazi members of the French and European Nationalist Party were responsible for a pair of anti-immigrant terror bombings in 1988. Sonacotra hostels in Cagnes-sur-Mer and Cannes were bombed, killing Romanian immigrant George Iordachescu and injuring 16 people, mostly Tunisians. In an attempt to frame Jewish extremists for the Cagnes-sur-Mer bombing, the terrorists left leaflets bearing Stars of David and the name Masada at the scene, with the message "To destroy Israel, Islam has chosen the sword. For this choice, Islam will perish."[13]

On 28 May 2008, members of the neo-Nazi Nomad 88 group fired with machine guns at people from their car in Saint-Michel-sur-Orge.[14][15]

In the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo shooting, six mosques and a restaurant were attacked in acts deemed as right-wing terrorism by authorities.[16] The acts included grenade throwing, shooting, and use of an improvised explosive device.

List of significant terrorist incidents inside France

France
Date	Sub	Location	Deaths	Injuries	Type	Perpetrator	Description of target and attack
15 September 1958		Paris	1	3	Small arms fire	FLN (Algerian nationalists)	– Government institutions Several gunmen fire into the car of the French Minister of Information, Jacques Soustelle. The minister survives unharmed, however four bystanders are struck and one is killed.[17]
18 June 1961		Blacy, Marne	28	100+	Improvised Explosive Device	Organisation armée secrète	– Private citizens & property A bomb attack on a Strasbourg–Paris train carried: it was the deadliest terrorist attack in modern French history until the November 2015 Paris attacks.[18]
14 December 1973		Marseilles	4	20	Improvised Explosive Device	Charles Martel Group	– Diplomatic (Algeria) A man exits a car and throws a bomb into the compound of the Algerian Consulate; the subsequent explosion kills 4 and injures 20 more, 4 seriously.[19]
15 September 1974		Paris	2	34	Improvised Explosive Device	PFLP (Palestinian nationalists)	– Private Citizens & Property A bomb explodes at the Drugstore Saint Germain, part of the fashionable circuit of restaurants and bars on Paris's Left Bank, killing two and injuring 34.[20]
24 October 1975		Paris	2	-	Grenade & Small arms fire	ASALA (Armenian nationalists)	– Diplomatic (Turkish) As İsmail Erez is returning from a reception – and as his vehicle approached the building of the Turkish Embassy in Paris – a group of 3–4 armed Armenian militants ambush the automobile, killing him and his driver Talip Yener.[21][22]
20 May 1978		Paris	4	3	Grenade & Small arms fire	PFLP (Palestinian nationalists)	– Airports & airlines Three terrorists open fire on El Al passengers in the departure lounge. All three terrorists are killed, along with one policeman, and three French tourists are also injured.[23]
5 October 1978		Marseilles	9	12	Small arms fire		– Private citizens & property At about 21:00 (UTC+1), three hooded men armed with sub machine guns enter a quiet neighborhood bar and shoot 21 patrons, killing nine. The attack at Le Telephone bar was likely related to organized crime, although none of the attackers were identified.[24]
23 December 1979		Paris	1	-	Grenade & Small arms fire	ASALA (Armenian nationalists)	– Diplomatic (Turkish) A gunman fires an automatic weapon amid crowds of Christmas shoppers, killing the director of the Turkish National Tourist Office, Yilmaz Colton, in Paris. The director was struck by three bullets while walking along the Champs-Élysées.[25]
28 January 1980		Paris	1	8	Improvised Explosive Device		– Diplomatic (Syrian) A bomb blast destroys the ground floor of the Syrian Embassy, killing one and injuring 8 others. Three of those injured were in a serious condition, including a pregnant woman. The attack happened 2 hours before the arrival of then Foreign Minister of Syria, Abdel Halim Khaddam, in France.[26]
17 July 1980		Paris	2	4	Small arms fire	Guards of Islam (Iranian agents)	– Government institutions (Shah of Iran) Former Iranian Prime Minister Shahpour Bakhtiar escapes an assassination attempt in which a French policeman and a female neighbour are killed. Four other officers were wounded, one seriously. Allegedly posing as reporters, a trio of gunmen attempted to enter the exiled leader's apartment in Neuilly, a suburb of Paris. A police guard at an armored door to the residence resisted and a gunfight took place.[27][28]
29 July 1980		Lyon	2	11	Small arms fire	ASALA (Armenian nationalists)	– Diplomatic (Turkish) Two gunmen storm the Turkish Consulate General in Lyon. The gunmen are unable to locate the Turkish consul general and open fire on the waiting area, killing two people and wounding eleven others, two seriously.[29]
3 October 1980		Paris	4	40	Improvised Explosive Device	-	– Religious figures & institutions A bomb went off outside the Union Libérale Israélite de France synagogue on Rue Copernic. The bomb had been hidden in the saddlebags of a motorcycle parked outside the synagogue on the eve of Simchat Torah. The explosion happened shortly before the end of services, however one of those killed were members of the congregation. French police initially suspected that the attack had been carried out by neo-Nazis, but later attributed it to the PFLP or one of its offshoots.[30][31][32][33]
25 November 1980		Paris	2	1	Small arms fire	-	– Private citizens & property An unknown gunman murders the Jewish owners of a Paris travel agency that specialized in tours to Israel. The assailant walked into the office of IT-Tours and fired from an automatic pistol, fatally wounding Edwin Douek, the proprietor. His wife, Michele, was killed instantly and a clerk was slightly wounded. Edwin Douek died of his wounds later in a hospital.[34]
4 March 1981		Paris	2	1	Small arms fire	ASALA (Armenian nationalists)	– Diplomatic (Turkish) Two gunmen open fire on Turkish Labour Attache, Resat Morali, and the Religious Affairs Officer in the Turkish Embassy, Tecelli Ari. Both are killed.[35]
24 September 1981		Paris	1	2	Small arms fire – Hostage taking (2 days)	ASALA (Armenian nationalists)	– Diplomatic (Turkish) At about 11:30 CET, four members of Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia took over the consulate killing a Turkish guard, wounding the Turkish Consul and taking 56 people hostage, including 8 women and a 3-year-old child. Shortly after midnight, the militants' leader started the negotiations that led to the end of the ordeal at about 2 a.m. He was promised by French authorities that the four militants would receive political asylum. The next day, however, the French Government issued a statement saying that the men would have to stand trial on charges growing out of the assault, including the death of a Turkish guard.[36]
29 March 1982		Ambazac	5	27	Improvised Explosive Device	Carlos the Jackal	– Transport A explosion on a Paris-Toulouse express train kills five passengers and injures 27 near Ambazac. The blast in the baggage compartment of the Capitole Express was caused by several pounds of extremely powerful explosives, intentionally planted. In 2011 Carlos the Jackal was tried for involvement in the attack and was subsequently convicted and sentenced to life in prison.[37][38]
22 April 1982		Paris	1	47	Car bomb	Carlos the Jackal	– Political A powerful car bomb detonates in a crowded street in central Paris during the morning rush hour, killing a young woman and injuring 46 people. The apparent target are the offices of the Libyan newspaper Al-Watan al-Arabi. In 2011 Carlos the Jackal is tried for involvement in the attacks and is subsequently convicted and sentenced to life in prison.[38][39]
9 August 1982		Paris	6	22	Grenade & Small arms fire	Abu Nidal Organization	– Private Citizens & Property Two assailants throw grenades into the dining room of the Chez Jo Goldenberg restaurant and fire machine guns at the patrons. Six people die, including two American tourists, and 22 others are wounded in the attack on the Jewish restaurant in Paris's Marais district.[40][41]
21 August 1982		Paris	1	2	Improvised Explosive Device	-	– Diplomatic (United States) A bomb, that police said was intended to target a United States diplomat, explodes on a luxurious residential street on the Left Bank near the Eiffel Tower, killing a bomb disposal expert and wounding two others. The bomb had been planted under the vehicle of Roderick Grant, commercial counselor at the United States Embassy in Paris.[42]
28 February 1983		Paris	1	4	Improvised Explosive Device	ASALA (Armenian nationalists)	– Private Citizens & Property A bomb detonates at the Turkish-owned Marmara Voyages tourism agency in central Paris, killing one female employee and injuring four others. The blast reportedly caused the roof of the offices to collapse.[43][44]
15 July 1983		Paris	8	55	Improvised Explosive Device	ASALA (Armenian nationalists)	– Airports & airlines A bomb explodes inside a suitcase at the Turkish Airlines check-in desk in the south terminal of the Orly Airport, sending flames through the crowd of passengers checking in for a flight to Istanbul. The bomb consisted of a half kilo of Semtex explosive connected to three portable gas bottles, which caused extensive burns on the victims. Three people were killed immediately in the blast and another five died in hospital. Four of the victims were French, two were Turkish, one was American, and one was Swedish.[45][46][47]
5 August 1983		Avignon	7	–	Small arms fire		– Private citizens & property At approximately 4:00 (UTC+1), two gunmen shoot to dead seven people at a Sofitel Hotel in a popular holiday town. The victims include the French consul-general for Saarbrücken in West Germany, Lucien Andre. Three other hotel guests and three employees of Sofitel were also killed after apparently being rounded up and ushered into a hotel room.[48]
1 October 1983		Marseilles	1	26	Improvised Explosive Device	ASALA (Armenian nationalists)	– Private Citizens & Property One man is killed and 26 people injured when multiple bombs destroyed the American, Soviet and Algerian pavilions at an international trade fair in Marseilles. An Armenian guerrilla group took responsibility for the attack in a telephone call to the police. However then Interior Minister, Gaston Defferre, later stated that the far rightist Charles Martel Group had also taken responsibility for the blast.[49]
31 December 1983		Marseilles	5	58+	Improvised Explosive Device	Carlos the Jackal	– Transport A bomb explodes in the two first-class cars of an AGV locomotive as it heads north toward Paris, from the Gare de Marseille-Saint-Charles. Although the train was travelling at about 160 kilometres per hour, it does not derail. Rescue workers find 2 passengers dead and 20 wounded, 5 of them seriously. Half an hour later a second bomb explodes in the baggage checkroom of the main hall at the Gare de Marseille-Saint-Charles, killing 2 people and wounding at least 38. In 2011 Carlos the Jackal is tried for involvement in the attacks and is subsequently convicted and sentenced to life in prison.[38][50][51]
7 February 1984		Paris	2	1	Small arms fire	Hezbollah & Islamic Jihad	– Government institutions (Shah of Iran) Gholam Ali Oveisi, a four-star general under Iran's late shah, and his brother, an ex-colonel, are killed by gunmen in central Paris. Their driver is also wounded.[52][53]
8 February 1984		Paris	1	–	Small arms fire	Abu Nidal Organization	– Diplomatic (Emirati) A lone gunman shoots and kills the United Arab Emirates' ambassador to France outside the diplomat's Paris home. Khalifa Ahmed Abdel Aziz al-Mubarak is killed in a district of Paris nearby the Eiffel tower.[54]
25 January 1985		Paris	1	–	Small arms fire	Action Directe	– Government institutions General René Audran, a senior official of the French Ministry of Defence, is shot to dead in front of his residence at La Celle-Saint-Cloud.[55]
23 February 1985		Paris	1	15	Improvised Explosive Device	–	– Private Citizens & Property A bomb explodes at an entrance to the Paris branch of the British-owned department store Marks & Spencer as it opened for business, killing a man and wounding 15 other people. Telephone calls claiming responsibility were received from the Caribbean Revolutionary Alliance, an outlawed group seeking the independence of France's Caribbean territories; and from Direct Action, a left-wing extremist group that had announced its fusion with the Red Army Faction terrorists of Germany.[56]
3 March 1985		Paris	4	–	Small arms fire	–	– Government institutions (Foreign: Khmer Rouge) Try Meng Huot – a doctor in chemistry who had been a lecturer at the University of Paris before he became a Khmer Rouge leader – is killed in his Parisian apartment alongside his wife and another unidentified couple.[57]
20 March 1986		Paris	2	28	Improvised Explosive Device	CSPPA (Lebanese faction)	– Private Citizens & Property A bomb explodes in a packed mall of luxury boutiques on the Champs-Elysees, killing 2 people and wounding 28. A second bomb, found on a metro train, was defused by police demolition experts before it could explode. A terrorist organization calling itself the Committee of Solidarity With Arab and Middle Eastern Political Prisoners asserted responsibility for the attack in a handwritten letter sent to the Beirut office of a Western news agency.[58][59]
25 April 1986		Lyon	1	–	Small arms fire	–	– Business Kenneth Marston, director of a French subsidiary of Black & Decker, is shot to death outside his home.[60]
9 September 1986		Paris	1	18	Improvised Explosive Device	CSPPA (Lebanese faction)	– Government institutions A bomb explodes inside the post office of the Hôtel de Ville, killing one person and wounding 18 others. The dead man is identified as Marguerite Thuault, an employee of the post office.[61][62]
15 September 1986		Paris	1	51	Improvised Explosive Device	CSPPA (Lebanese faction)	– Government institutions A bomb explodes inside the Parisian police headquarters, killing one person and wounding 51 others, two seriously.[61]
17 September 1986		Paris	5	50+	Improvised Explosive Device	CSPPA (Lebanese faction)	– Private Citizens & Property A bomb thrown from a passing car explodes in front of a Tati department store on the Left Bank, killing at least 5 people and wounding about 50. The blast, which occurred about 17:30, destroyed the entire front of the seven-story building on the rue de Rennes.[63]
18 October 1986		Toulon	4	–	Car bomb	–	– A car explodes in the seafront market place at Toulon, killing the four occupants and setting fire to a nearby building. The police said it may have been carrying explosives in preparation for a bomb attack.[64]
17 November 1986		Paris	1	–	Small arms fire	Action Directe	– Business A man and woman firing from a motorcycle kill the head of the French auto-maker Renault. Georges Besse is struck down by gunfire as he exited from his car, unaccompanied by bodyguards. He had been appointed chairman of the company in January 1985.[65]
19 December 1988		Cagnes sur Mer	1	12	Improvised Explosive Device	French and European Nationalist Party	– Private Citizens & Property At 3:00 (UTC+1), two homemade bombs explode at a crowded hostel for mostly North African immigrant workers, killing a Romanian national and wounding at least 12 others. The first blast destroyed a number of vehicles on the street, and following this a second blast, under the main stairwell of the building, destroyed the corridor into which many residents had come to check the first blast.[66][67]
5 October 1994		Paris	4	6	Small arms fire – Hostage taking	–	– Government institutions Three police officers and a taxi driver are killed, and six other people – including two more officers – are wounded in separate shoot outs with two masked gunmen in Paris. The pair broke into a Paris police station to steal fire arms, then took a taxi driver hostage and forced him to drive them to the Bois de Vincennes park on the outskirts of Paris, where the final shoot out took place.[68]
25 July 1995		Paris	8	150	Improvised explosive device	GIA (Islamists)	– Transport Eight people are killed and 150 wounded in an explosion of a gas canister packed with nails and bolts on a Paris regional train at the Gare de Saint-Michel-Notre-Dame rail station. The bombing was claimed by the Armed Islamic Group as reprisals for French support for Algeria's army-backed government.[69][70]
3 December 1996		Paris	3	85	Improvised explosive device	GIA (Islamists)	– Transport A blast at 18:03 CET rips open the doors of a train on the southbound track of the Port Royal station of the regional express network on the Left Bank, scattering the wounded – totaling over 85 – over the platform. Three people succumb to injuries caused by the bomb made from a 28-pound camping gas canister filled with nails.[71][72]
19 April 2000		Plévin	1	–	Improvised explosive device	–	– Private Citizens & Property A bomb explodes beside a McDonald's in a small town in Brittany, killing a restaurant worker. The explosion, in the Dinan area, happens at about 10:00 CET, near the restaurant's drive-through window.[73]
6 December 2007		Paris	1	4	Improvised explosive device	–	– Private Citizens & Property A parcel bomb explodes at a legal office in central Paris killing a secretary and seriously injuring a lawyer. Several other people were lightly hurt in the unclaimed blast shortly before 13:00 CET on the fourth floor of a building in the capital's fashionable eighth arrondissement or district.[74]
15 March 2012		Montauban	2	1	Small arms fire	Mohammed Merah (Islamist)	– Government institutions At around 14:00 CET, two uniformed soldiers were killed and a third was seriously injured outside a shopping centre in Montauban, while withdrawing money from a cash machine. They were all from the 17th Parachute Engineer Regiment (17^e Régiment du génie parachutiste), whose barracks are close to the town. Corporal Abel Chennouf, 24, and Private Mohamed Legouad, 23, both of North African origin, were killed. Corporal Loïc Liber, 28, from Guadeloupe, was left in a coma.[75][76]
19 March 2012		Toulouse	5 (one perp.)	1	Small arms fire	Mohammed Merah (Islamist)	– Religious figures & institutions At about 8:00 CET, a man drove up to the Ozar Hatorah school on a motorcycle. He dismounted, and immediately opened fire toward the schoolyard. Four people died: 30-year-old Rabbi Jonathan (Yonatan) Sandler; his two oldest (out of three) children Aryeh, aged 6, and Gabriel, aged 3; and the head teacher's daughter, eight-year-old Miriam Monsonego, the girl shot in the head. Bryan Bijaoui, a 17-year-old Jewish boy, was gravely injured.[77][78][79]
7 January 2015		Paris	14 (2 perps.)	11	Small arms fire	Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula	– Private Citizens & Property At about 11:30 CET, two militants armed with assault rifles and other weapons forced their way into the offices of the French satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris. They fired up to 50 shots, initially killing 11 people and injuring 11 others, and shouted "Allahu Akbar" (Arabic for "God is [the] greatest") during their attack.
9 January 2015		Paris	5 (one perp.)	9	Small arms fire – hostage taking (1 day)	Amedy Coulibaly (Islamist)	– Private Citizens & Property At about 1:00 CET, an Islamist militant who pledged allegiance to Islamic State, enters the Hypercacher kosher superette in Porte de Vincennes and takes up to 20 Jewish patrons hostage. Four Jewish hostages die and held fifteen others are held during a siege in which Coulibaly demands that the two militants responsible for the attack on the satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo not be harmed.
26 June 2015		Saint-Quentin-Fallavier	1	2	Bladed weapon & Improvised Explosive Device	Yassine Salhi (Islamist)	– Private Citizens & Property At about 9:30 CEST, a suspected Islamic militant decapitates a man and drives a company van into gas cylinders at an Air Products gas factory near Lyon. The attacker placed the head of a victim on a fence railing, and planted two Jihadist flag banners alongside it. Video surveillance footage showed that the perpetrator also tried to ignite several canisters containing flammable chemicals.
21 August 2015		Oignies	0	5	Small arms, bladed weapons	Ayoub El Khazzani (Islamist)	– Transport At about 17:45 CEST, a 26-year-old Moroccan national carrying a Draco automatic rifle, magazines containing 300 rounds, a semi-automatic Luger pistol, and a box cutter, opened fire on a Thalys train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris. The gunman was attacked and subdued by seven men (four Americans, including an ex-pat, a Frenchman, an American-French citizen and a Briton), who beat him unconscious. The train was diverted to Arras where the man was arrested and identified, and two victims treated. The man had been previously flagged with an "S" card, France's warning alert for someone believed to be a national security risk.[80]
13 November 2015		Paris, Saint-Denis	130 (+7)	368	AK-47 assault rifles, hand grenades, various explosives, suicide vests	Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant	– Private Citizens & Property On the evening of 13 November 2015, a series of coordinated terrorist attacks comprising mass shootings and suicide bombings occurred in Paris and Saint-Denis, France. Beginning at 21:16 CET,[81] three separate explosions and six mass shootings occurred, including bombings near the Stade de France in the northern suburb of Saint-Denis.[81][82] The deadliest attack was at the Bataclan theatre where attackers took hostages and engaged in a standoff with police until it was ended at 00:58 CET 14 November 2015. 130 civilians were killed in the attacks.
14 July 2016		Nice	86 (+1)	434	Vehicular attack	Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant	– Private Citizens & Property On the evening of 14 July 2016, a vehicle-ramming attack took place in Nice, France when a man deliberately drove a cargo truck into a crowd of people celebrating Bastille Day on the Promenade des Anglais. 86 people were killed and 434 others were injured.
13 June 2016		Magnanville	2	0	Knife	Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant	– Private Citizens & Property On 13 June 2016, a police officer and his wife, a police secretary, were stabbed to death in their home in Magnanville (about 35 miles west of Paris) by a man acting on an "order" by ISIL to "kill infidels".
3 February 2017		Paris	0	1	Knife	Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant	– Private Citizens & Property On 3 February 2017, armed with two 40-centimetre machetes a 29-year-old Egyptian terrorist attacked patrolling guards outside the Louvre museum. One of the guards was slightly injured during the attack as the perpetrator was shot dead.
20 April 2017		Paris	1 (+1)	3	AK-47 assault rifle	Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant	– Police officers & Private Citizen On 20 April 2017,a police officer was killed and two more were injured alongside a tourist by an assailant wielding a Kalashnikov rifle on the Champs-Élysées, a shopping boulevard in Paris, France.
23 March 2018		Aude	4 (+1)	15	Handgun, hunting knife and homemade explosives	Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant	– Police officers & Private Citizens On 23 March 2018, a 25 year old assailant hijacked a car in Carcassonne, France, killing one. He then shot at some off duty officers and then drove to the nearby town of Trèbes where he stormed a local supermarket, killing three, including a policeman, and taking several hostage. He was later shot and killed.
12 May 2018		Paris	1 (+1)	4	Knife	Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant	– Private Citizen A 21-year-old Chechnia-born man armed with a knife, killed one pedestrian and injured four more near the Palais Garnier, the opera house in Paris, France, before being fatally shot by police.
11 December 2018		Strasbourg	5 (+1)	11	Modele 1892 revolver and knife	Chérif Chekatt	– Private Citizens A 29-year-old French citizen of Algerian origin killed five civilians and wounded 11 others at a Christmas market in Strasbourg, France, before being killed in a shootout with police two days later.
24 May 2019		Lyon	0	13	Improvised Explosive Device	Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant	– Private Citizens A packet bomb explodes in front of a bakery in the pedestrian zone of Lyon. 13 people were wounded. A 24-year old male student from Algeria was arrested 3 days later. No group has claimed responsibility of the attack yet.
3 October 2019		Paris	4 (+1)	2	Ceramic Knife	Mickaël Harpon	– Police Employees A radicalized Islamist stabbed four people to death, and injured two others at the central police headquarters in Paris. He was an administrative worker and had been recently converting to Salafist Islam. The perpetrator was shot instantly dead by other officers.
3 January 2020		Villejuif	1 (+1)	2	Knife	Nathan Chiasson	– Civilians A man stabbed three people in Villejuif, a suburb of Paris, killing one person and wounding two others. The attacker was shot dead by police. The attacker was identified as Nathan Chiasson, a follower of Salafism, an extremist sect of Islam.
4 April 2020		Romans-sur-Isère	2	5	Knife	Abdallah Ahmed-Osman	-Civilians Two people were killed and five others wounded in a mass stabbing in Romans-sur-Isère, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France. The suspect is a 30-year-old Sudanese asylum seeker who was arrested at the scene. French police have launched a terrorism investigation. Two other people related to the attacker were arrested later.
27 April 2020		Colombes	0	3	Vehicle	Islamist	-Civilians Three police officers were seriously injured when a driver rammed his vehicle into them in Colombes, Hauts-de-Seine. The perpetrator was arrested, and a source stated that the man carried out the attack to "avenge events in Palestine". The attacker had pledged allegiance to Islamic State.
25 September 2020		Paris	0	2	Knife	Islamist	-Civilians A knife attack outside the former headquarters of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris, France, left two people wounded. The building is now used by a television production company, and the two wounded victims are workers of the company. The suspected perpetrator and six other people were taken into custody. Interior minister Gérald Darmanin said that the attack was "clearly an act of Islamist terrorism".
16 October 2020		Conflans-Sainte-Honorine	1 (+1)	0	Knife	Abdoullakh Anzorov	-Teacher A teacher was beheaded near a school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, a suburb of Paris, the attacker was shot dead by police. The victim is said to have shown controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad to his students. President Emmanuel Macron called the attack an "Islamist terrorist attack".
29 October 2020		Nice	3	0 (+1)	Knife	Brahim Aouissaoui	-Churchgoers Three people were killed in a stabbing attack at Notre-Dame de Nice, a Roman Catholic basilica, in Nice, France. One of the victims, a woman, was beheaded by the attacker. Several additional victims were injured. The attacker, who was shot by the police, was taken into custody. The Mayor of Nice and police said the incident appeared to be an Islamic extremism terrorist attack.

List of international terrorist incidents with significant French casualties

• 6 French nationals died as a result of the Kouré shooting in Niger on 9 August 2020.[83]
• 4 French nationals died as a result of the Étoile du Sud hotel attack in Grand-Bassam in Ivory Coast on 13 March 2016.[84]
• 3 French nationals died as a result of the Cappuccino restaurant and the Splendid Hotel attack in Ouagadougou, in Burkina Faso on 15 January 2016.[85]
• 4 French nationals died and seven were injured as a result of the Bardo National Museum attack in Tunisia on 18 March 2015.[86]
• 2 French nationals died as a result of the assault on the Nairobi Westgate shopping complex in Kenya 21–24 September 2013.[87]
• 8 French nationals died as a result of the bombing of the Argana Cafe in Jemaa el-Fnaa square of Marrakesh in Morocco on 28 April 2011.[88][89]
• 2 French nationals died as a result of attacks on several hotels and other tourist locations in Mumbai in India 26–29 November 2008.[90]
• 4 French nationals died and one was injured as a result of an armed attack on a group of tourists on holiday near Aleg in Mauritania on 24 December 2007.[91]
• 4 French nationals died as a result of the bombing of several Balinese tourist clubs in Indonesia on 12 October 2002.[92]
• 4 French nationals died as a result of the September 11 attacks.

Foiled attacks

In 2015, a 26-year-old Moroccan man known as a member of the radical Islamist movement attempted to open fire with an AK47 assault rifle while on a high speed train one hour from Paris. He was quickly subdued by three United States servicemen who were on holiday.[93] See: 2015 Thalys train attack

Towards the end of March 2016, police arrested a Paris citizen named Reda Kriket, and upon searching his apartment, they discovered five assault rifles, a number of handguns, and an amount of chemical substances that could be used to make explosives.[94]

Kriket was convicted in absentia by a Belgian court in a 2015 case involving Abdelhamid Abaaoud.[95]

Murder of Sarah Halimi

Under French law, any grave act of violence committed with intent "to seriously disturb public order through intimidation or terror", is an act of terrorism; the public prosecutor decides which cases will be investigated as acts of terrorism.[96] Writing in Le Figaro attorney Gilles-William Goldnadel characterized the public prosecutor's decision not to investigate a crime, Murder of Sarah Halimi as terrorism, as "purely and simply ideological", asserting that the killer, who recited verses form the Quran before breaking into an apartment and murdering a Jewish woman, "had the profile of a radical Islamist, and yet somehow there is a resistance to call a spade a spade".[96] Sarah Halimi's murder was heard by neighbors in her building and in neighboring building over an extended period of time. Neighbors also saw the killer throw his victim from the balcony of her home, and heard the killer praying aloud after the murder.[97][96] In September, 2017, the prosecutor officially characterized the murder as an "antisemitic" hate crime.[98]

According to Jean-Charles Brisard, director of the French think tank Center for the Analysis of Terrorism, "It needs to have a certain degree of willingness to disrupt the French public order."[96][99]

See also

• Law on the fight against terrorism, 2006 French legislation
• Terrorism in the European Union
• List of Islamist terrorist attacks
• ISIL-related terror attacks in France
• 2014 Dijon attack
• Murder of Sarah Halimi
• List of massacres in France

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