One dead, nine wounded in Lyon stabbing attack

An assailant in France fatally stabbed one person and injured nine others Saturday outside a subway station near the city of Lyon before police detained him. Authorities said the reason for the attack was unclear.

The detained man claimed to be Afghan but also gave at least two different identities, according to a security official. The attack might have been terrorism-related, the official said, but authorities consider it more likely the suspect was mentally unstable.

The victim who died was a 19-year-old man, and it was unclear if he knew the attacker, according to a local police official.

An AFP journalist at the scene witnessed a body being taken away in an ambulance and traces of blood on the ground.

Last May, a parcel bomb in front of a baker’s shop in central Lyon left 14 people slightly injured.

The perpetrator, a young radicalised Algerian, who was arrested three days later, pledged allegiance to Daesh group, according to his confession.

Local police initially launched a manhunt for a second attacker but later determined that the detained man was the main suspect, the security official said.

The national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office has not been asked to participate in the investigation at this stage. An official with the Lyon regional administration said national security forces weren’t involved in the search, which includes a few dozen local police officers and a helicopter.

Both officials were not authorized to be publicly named because of French government policy.

France remains on high alert after several deadly Islamic extremist attacks in 2015 and 2016.