2014 Tours police station stabbing

{{Infobox civilian attack

| title = 2014 Tours stabbing attack

| partof = Islamic terrorism in Europe

| image = Indre-et-Loire-Position.svg

| location = Joué-lès-Tours, France

| target = Police officers

| coordinates = {{Coord|47.3520|0.6622|display=inline,title}}

| date = 20 December 2014

| time =

| type = Stabbing

| fatalities = 1 (the perpetrator)

| injuries = 3

| perp = Bertrand Nzohabonayo

| weapons = Knife

| motive = Islamist terrorism inspired by ISIL

}}On 20 December 2014, a man in Joué-lès-Tours near the city of Tours in central France entered a police station and attacked officers with a knife, shouting "Allahu Akbar" and injuring three before he was shot and killed. The attack was categorised as a case of religiously inspired terrorism by Europol,{{Cite journal|title=EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report (TE-SAT) 2015|url=https://www.europol.europa.eu/activities-services/main-reports/european-union-terrorism-situation-and-trend-report-2015|journal=EU Terrorism Situation & Trend Report (Te-Sat)|publisher=Europol|year=2015|pages=18|isbn=978-92-95200-56-2}} and has been reported by Europol as well as mappings by CNN and AFP as inspired by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).{{Cite report|title=Changes in Modus Operandi of Islamic State (IS) revisited|publisher=Europol|url=https://www.europol.europa.eu/publications-documents/changes-in-modus-operandi-of-islamic-state-revisited|date=November 2016|page=7}}{{Cite news|first1=Tim|last1=Lister|first2=Ray|last2=Sanchez|first3=Mark|last3=Bixler|first4=Sean|last4=O'Key|first5=Michael|last5=Hogenmiller|first6=Mohammed|last6=Tawfeeq|title=ISIS goes global: 143 attacks in 29 countries have killed 2,043|url=http://edition.cnn.com/2015/12/17/world/mapping-isis-attacks-around-the-world/index.html|work=CNN|date=13 February 2017}}{{Cite news|title=Timeline: How jihadists have targeted soldiers and police in France|url=https://www.thelocal.fr/20170915/islamist-attacks-against-police-and-soldiers-in-france|agency=AFP|website=thelocal.fr|date=15 September 2017}}

Perpetrator

The attacker was identified as Bertrand Nzohabonayo, age 20, a French citizen and former rap musician born in Burundi in 1994, he was known to the police for minor crimes but was not on any watchlist.{{cite news|title=French police shoot dead knifeman who was shouting Islamic slogans|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11305974/French-police-shoot-dead-knifeman-who-was-shouting-Islamic-slogans.html|access-date=16 November 2015|publisher=The Daily Telegraph|date=20 December 2014}}{{cite news|last1=Lichfield|first1=John|title=Man shot dead by police in jihadist attack in Tours|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/man-shot-dead-by-police-in-jihadist-attack-in-tours-9938912.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220501/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/man-shot-dead-by-police-in-jihadist-attack-in-tours-9938912.html |archive-date=May 1, 2022 |url-access=subscription|access-date=17 November 2015|work=The Independent|date=21 December 2014}}{{cbignore}}{{cite news|last1=Rodrigues|first1=Jason|title=Terror attacks in Europe: the five danger zones|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/16/terror-threat-jihadis-five-countries|access-date=17 November 2015|work=The Guardian|date=16 January 2015}}{{cite news|title=France Dijon: Driver targets city pedestrians|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-30571911|access-date=22 December 2014|work=BBC News|date=21 December 2014}} The attacker had taken Bilal as his new name upon conversion to Islam, and had been posting Islamist material on his Facebook page, including a photograph of the black flag of the Islamic State.{{cite news|last1=Cruickshank|first1=Paul|title=Drumbeat of terror precedes slaughter that shocks France and the world|url=http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/14/europe/paris-attacks-threats/|access-date=17 November 2015|publisher=CNN|date=16 November 2015}}{{cite news|last1=Mulholland|first1=Rory|title=French knife attacker Bertrand Nzohabonayo was Islamic convert; Man shot dead by French police had changed name to Bilal and posted ISIL flag on Facebook|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11307094/French-knife-attacker-Bertrand-Nzohabonayo-was-Islamic-convert.html|access-date=16 November 2015|publisher=The Daily Telegraph|date=21 December 2014}}

In Burundi, police arrested the attacker's brother, a man with known Islamist sympathies and claimed that they had informed French authorities the previous year that both brothers should be regarded as suspect due to their extreme religious views.{{cite news|title=Burundi arrests brother of suspect in French police attack|url=http://www.france24.com/en/20141222-burundi-arrests-brother-suspect-police-knife-attack-nzohabonayo|access-date=16 November 2015|publisher=France 24|date=22 December 2014}}

Motivation

The Financial Times described the attack, along with the vehicle-ramming attacks on 21 December in Dijon and 22 December in Nantes as "the first ISIS-linked attacks" in France.{{cite news|last1=Jones|first1=Sam|title=France emerges as main focus for terrorists|publisher=Financial Times|date=15 July 2016|id={{ProQuest|1811254498}}}} According to The Globe and Mail, the attack was "apparently inspired by a video" circulated by ISIL calling on French Muslims to attack non-Muslims using vehicles.{{cite news|last1=Martin|first1=Patrick|title=History of lone-wolf vehicle attacks suggests risk of emulation is very rea|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/history-of-lone-wolf-vehicle-attacks-suggests-risk-of-emulation-is-very-real/article30933070/|access-date=15 July 2016|work=The Globe and Mail|date=15 July 2016}}

According to David C. Rapoport of the University of California, Los Angeles, these three attacks can be understood in the context of the rise of the Islamic State in Syria. "In September 2014, after the U.S. organized its airstrikes, the Islamic State’s chief spokesman called on Muslims in Western countries to find an infidel and ‘smash his head with a rock’, poison him, run him over with a car or ‘destroy his crops’. Two months later a video released in French contained virtually the same message and a series of strange 'lone wolf' attacks followed on three consecutive days, the perpetrators declaring “'God is Great' in Arabic. Three policemen were stabbed in Joué-lès-Tours, and vehicles were used to run over eleven pedestrians in Dijon and ten in Nantes."{{cite journal|last1=Rapoport|first1=David|title=Why Has The Islamic State Changed its Strategy and Mounted the Paris-Brussels Attacks?|journal=Perspectives on Terrorism; Terrorism Research Initiative; University of Leiden|date=2016|volume=10|issue=2|url=http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/498/html|access-date=18 October 2017}}

Aftermath

The attack was categorised as "religiously inspired terrorism" by Europol, as reported to them by France. Following this attack, the 2014 Dijon attack and 2014 Nantes attack, which were deemed to be unrelated, the French government heightened the nation's security.{{cite news|title=France to deploy soldiers after spate of attacks|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-30586798|access-date=26 December 2014|work=BBC News|date=23 December 2014}}