A knifeman in France has been shot dead by police machine gun fire in Bordeaux after he reportedly stabbed one passer-by to death and wounded another.
The attack occurred just before 8pm on Wednesday in the southwest French city, at the end of the evening rush hour.
‘A police officer used his machine gun to kill the assailant on the Left Bank of the Garonne river, just after he had attacks by the city hall,’ said an investigating source told Mail Online.
TV journalist Amaury Bucco said the attacker was a ‘man dressed in a djellaba and armed with a knife’ close to the Pont de Pierre [Peter Bridge].
There was no early indication as to the motive of the stabbings, but it came on a night of high tension across France, following warnings of an attack on football stadium by ISIS.
Local prosecutors confirmed that the attacker was dead, along with one of his victims.
A third person suffered ‘very serious stab wounds,’ and was in intensive care, said the source at the Bordeaux prosecutors office.
Witnesses said they saw the knifeman ‘attack pedestrians with a bladed weapon after telling them off for drinking.’
Prosecutors confirmed that the dead person stabbed in the throat was an Algerian national, aged 36.
The investigating source said: ‘The man was set upon in Place de la Bourse [Stock Exchange Square] and was stabbed alongside at least two others.
‘The other two were wounded and taken to Bordeaux University Hospital, but he died at the scene.
‘The attacker had reproached a group of North African people for having a drink – possibly because they should have been fasting during Ramadan.’
Muslims avoid all food and drink during the Ramadan fast. The period of religious prayer ended April 9 this year.
One police source said the attack had ‘no terrorist connotation for the moment’. The source said it was likely to be ‘a brawl with an unknown motive’.