This is a list of terrorist attacks in France from 1800 to the present. Several 19th-century French rulers were targeted in unsuccessful assassination attempts which killed innocent bystanders.
Since December 1973, terrorist attacks have been taking place regularly over the country, with more than 400 people killed and over 1,700 others injured.
France has a lengthy history of terrorist attacks carried out by a variety of groups from the extreme right, extreme left, extreme Basque, Breton and Corsican nationalists, Algerian insurgent groups and Islamist extremists. [1] Most of the attacks have been bombings utilising improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Anarchists carried out a series of bombings and assassination attempts in the 19th century. A number of attacks associated with the Algerian War took place in the 1950s and 1960s, including the deadliest terrorist attack in France in the 20th century, the 1961 Vitry-Le-François train bombing carried out by the pro-colonialist French nationalist Organisation armée secrète.
Various Middle Eastern factions carried out shootings and bombings in the 1970s and 1980s, mainly in Paris, while during the Algerian Civil War of the 1990s, insurgents associated with the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) carried out a series of major attacks against the Paris public transport system. Nationalist extremists from the Basque, Breton and Corsican communities carried out a number of assassinations and targeted bomb attacks in the 1990s and 2000s. Islamist extremists have carried out numerous attacks in the 2010s, of which the November 2015 Paris attacks have been the bloodiest to date. Although 2015 has been the deadliest year so far in terms of fatalities caused by terrorist attacks, the number of separate terrorist attacks in previous years has been far higher. The highest number of attacks recorded in a single year was 270 in 1996, largely carried out by Algerian Civil War insurgents. The last year without any recorded terrorist attacks was 1971. [2]
Outside France, the terrorist attack with the most French victims was the 19 September 1989 bombing of UTA Flight 772 over Niger, in which 170 people died, 54 of them French citizens. [3]
Date | Type | Dead | Injured | Location and description |
---|---|---|---|---|
24 December 1800 | Bombing | 22 | 50+ | Plot of the rue Saint-Nicaise, an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Napoleon Bonaparte in Paris. [3] [4] |
28 July 1835 | Shooting | 18 | 22 | Unsuccessful attempt by Giuseppe Mario Fieschi to assassinate King Louis Philippe I using an "infernal device", essentially an improvised multi-barrelled gun. [3] [5] |
14 January 1858 | Bombing | 8 | 106 | Unsuccessful attempt by Italian nationalist Felice Orsini to assassinate Napoleon III. [3] [6] |
8 November 1892 | Bombing | 5 | 0 | The anarchist Émile Henry placed a bomb at the offices of the Carmaux Mining Company, killing five police officers after it was discovered and transported to a police station. [7] |
9 December 1893 | Bombing | 0 | 1 | The anarchist Auguste Vaillant threw a home-made bomb into the French Chamber of Deputies from the public gallery, injuring one deputy. [8] |
12 February 1894 | Bombing | 1 | 20 | French anarchist Émile Henry detonated a bomb at the Café Terminus in the Parisian Gare Saint-Lazare. [9] |
24 June 1894 | Stabbing | 1 | 0 | Assassination of the President of the French Republic, Sadi Carnot by the Italian anarchist Sante Geronimo Caserio, in revenge for the execution of Vaillant. [10] |
Date | Type | Dead | Injured | Location and description |
---|---|---|---|---|
31 July 1914 | Shooting | 1 | 0 | Assassination of Jean Jaurès a socialist leader and a committed antimilitarist, at the outbreak of World War I, in a Parisian cafe, by a French nationalist Raoul Villain. [11] |
25 May 1926 | Shooting | 1 | 0 | Assassination of Ukrainian nationalist Symon Petliura in Paris on rue Racine, by a Russian revolutionary Sholom Schwartzbard. [12] |
9 October 1934 | Shooting | 6 | 5 | Assassination of Alexander I of Yugoslavia and French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou in Marseille, by a Bulgarian revolutionary Vlado Chernozemski. [13] |
23 January 1937 | Stabbing | 1 | 0 | Assassination of Dimitri Navachine, former governor of the BCEN, a Soviet-controlled bank in Paris, by an extreme-right group La Cagoule. |
9 June 1937 | Shooting | 2 | 0 | Assassination of two Italian antifascists, the Rosseli Brothers (Nello and Carlo) by La Cagoule in Bagnoles-de-l'Orne, probably on the orders of Mussolini. |
11 September 1937 | Bombing | 2 | 0 | Bomb attack by La Cagoule against the Union des industries et métiers de la métallurgie and the "Confédération générale du patronat français" to create the impression of a communist conspiracy. [14] |
15 September 1958 | Shooting | 1 | 3 | Unsuccessful attempt by the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) to assassinate the French Information Minister Jacques Soustelle on the Place de l'Etoile in Paris. |
18 June 1961 | Bombing | 28 | 100+ | 1961 Vitry-Le-François train bombing carried out by the French-Algerian anti-secession paramilitary Organisation armée secrète (OAS), which caused a fast Strasbourg–Paris train to derail; the worst terrorist attack in French history before the 21st century. [1] [15] |
8 September 1961 | Shooting | 0 | 0 | An OAS gang controlled by Raoul Salan fired a plastic charge at the car of French president Charles de Gaulle. |
22 January 1962 | Bombing | 1 | 12 | Bomb attack against the Quai d'Orsay, carried out by the OAS. [15] |
9 March 1962 | Bombing | 3 | 47 | 1962 Issy-les-Moulineaux bombing: Car bomb attack in Issy-les-Moulineaux, carried out by the OAS. [15] |
22 August 1962 | Shooting | 0 | 0 | Unsuccessful assassination attempt on the president by Jean Bastien-Thiry, likely on behalf of the OAS. Charles de Gaulle's presidential motorcade was raked by machine-gun fire in a Paris suburb called Petit-Clamart. The rear window shattered, and two tires burst, but De Gaulle and his wife escaped unharmed. |
9 May 1970 | Bombing | 0 | 0 | Besançon courthouse attack : bomb attack in Besançon, carried out by the UDR/SAC [16] |
14 December 1973 | Bombing | 4 | 20 | 1973 Algerian consulate bombing in Marseille: Bomb attack against the Algerian consulate in Marseille by the far-right Charles Martel Group. [1] |
28 July 1974 | Bombing | 0 | 12 | Bomb attack against the Spanish consulate in Toulouse by Revolutionary Internationalist Action Groups (GARI). |
15 September 1974 | Bombing | 2 | 34 | Grenade attack on the Drugstore Saint-Germain-des-Prés, allegedly by Carlos the Jackal. [17] |
13–19 January 1975 | RPG attack | 0 | 24 | Two failed rocket propelled grenade attacks on El Al airplanes at Orly Airport by Carlos the Jackal and Black September. [18] |
9 March 1975 | Bombing | 1 | 6 | Bomb attack in the Gare de l'Est, Paris. |
31 July 1975 | Hostage taking | 1 | 2 | Hostage taking at the Iraqi embassy in Paris, carried out by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). |
24 October 1975 | Shooting | 2 | 0 | A group of Armenian militants ambushed the car of Turkish Ambassador İsmail Erez killing him and his chauffeur. Both ASALA and JCAG claimed responsibility. |
18 October 1977 | Shooting | 1 | 0 | A Red Army Faction commando shoots and kills German industrialist Hanns Martin Schleyer near the city of Mulhouse. Another commando had kidnapped Schleyer in Cologne, Germany, on 5 September 1977, killing his driver and three police officers. |
11 May 1978 | Bombing | 0 | 0 | Bomb attack carried out by members of the separatist National Liberation Front of Corsica against an Air France Boeing 707 while it was on the ground at Ajaccio Napoleon Bonaparte Airport in Corsica. [18] |
20 May 1978 | Shooting | 4 | 5 | Three terrorists open fire on El Al passengers in the departure lounge of Orly Airport south of Paris. [18] [19] |
26 June 1978 | Bombing | 0 | 1 | 1978 Palace of Versailles bombing: Two Breton terrorists cause significant damage to pieces of art at the Palace of Versailles near Paris with a bomb. |
3 August 1978 | Shooting | 2 | 0 | Assassination of the PLO representative in Paris, Izz al-Din al-Kalak and one of his assistants, by the Abu Nidal Organization. |
2 December 1978 | Bombing | 1 | 25 | A bomb attack kills one at the Bazar de l'Hôtel de Ville in Paris. Nobody claimed responsibility. |
27 March 1979 | Bombing | 0 | 32 | Bomb attack against a university restaurant in a Jewish student hostel in Paris claimed by an Anti-Zionist group. [19] |
7 December 1979 | Shooting | 1 | 0 | Assassination of Shahriar Shafiq, a former Imperial Navy Captain of Iran, in Paris on the Rue Pergolese where he was in exile. Ayatollah Khalkhali claimed that the assassination was carried out by one of his death squads. The Muslim Liberation Group announced that it was responsible for the assassination. |
23 December 1979 | Shooting | 1 | 0 | Assassination of Turkish attaché for tourism in France, Yılmaz Çolpan on the Champs Elysées by the JCAG. |
17 January 1980 | Shooting | 1 | 0 | Assassination of the director of the Palestinian library-shop in Paris, Yusef Mubarak, by the Abu Nidal Organization. |
29 January 1980 | Bombing | 1 | 8 | Bomb attack against the Syrian Embassy in Paris. |
11 June 1980 | Bombing | 0 | 12 | Bomb attack in the west terminal of Orly Airport, claimed by the far-left group Action directe. [18] |
21 July 1980 | Shooting | 1 | 0 | Assassination of former Prime Minister of Syria, Salah al-Bitar in his newspaper office in Paris. |
5 August 1980 | Shooting | 2 | 11 | 1980 Turkish Consulate attack in Lyon, carried out by the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA). |
3 October 1980 | Bombing | 4 | 46 | 1980 Paris synagogue bombing against the synagogue of the French Israeli Liberal Union on rue Copernic, Paris. [1] |
4 March 1981 | Shooting | 2 | 1 | Assassination of the Turkish Labour Attaché, Reşat Moralı, and the Religious Affairs Officer in the Turkish Embassy, Tecelli Arı by two gunmen of ASALA in Paris. |
16 April 1981 | Bombing | 1 | 8 | Bomb attack at Ajaccio airport shortly after the arrival of French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. [18] |
29 August 1981 | Bombing | 0 | 15 | Bomb attack by a Palestinian group in the Intercontinental Hotel in Paris. |
24–25 September 1981 | Hostage taking | 1 | 2 | 1981 Turkish consulate attack in Paris, carried out by ASALA. |
18 January 1982 | Shooting | 1 | 0 | Assassination of the United States Assistant Army Attaché (Charles R. Ray), carried out by the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Faction. |
29 March 1982 | Bombing | 5 | 29 | 1982 Capitole bombing: Bomb attack against the "Capitole" train between Paris and Toulouse, attributed to Carlos the Jackal. [1] |
3 April 1982 | Shooting | 1 | 0 | Assassination of an Israeli embassy advisor (Yaacov Barsimentov) in Paris, carried out by the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Faction. |
22 April 1982 | Bombing | 1 | 60 | April 1982 Paris car bombing: Car bomb attack outside the Parisian offices of anti-Syrian newspaper Al-Watan Al-Arabi, attributed to Carlos the Jackal. [17] |
21 July 1982 | Bombing | 0 | 15 | Bomb attack in a terrace café on the Place Saint-Michel in Paris, carried out by ASALA. |
9 August 1982 | Shooting | 6 | 22 | Goldenberg restaurant attack on the Rue des Rosiers in Paris, attributed to the Abu Nidal Organization (ANO). [1] |
17 September 1982 | Bombing | 0 | 51 | September 1982 Paris car bombing: Bomb attack against an Israeli diplomat in front of the Israeli consulate and the Lycée Carnot, claimed by FARL and Action directe. [19] |
28 February 1983 | Bombing | 1 | 4 | Bomb attack in an office of the travel agency Marmara in Paris, carried out by ASALA. |
15 July 1983 | Bombing | 8 | 56 | 1983 Orly Airport attack, carried out by ASALA. [1] [18] |
30 September 1983 | Bombing | 1 | 26 | 1983 Marseille exhibition bombing: Bomb attack during the Marseille International Fair Trade. Action directe, FARL, ASALA and Commando Delta claimed responsibility. |
23 December 1983 | Bombing | 0 | 12 | Grand Véfour restaurant bombing: Bombing of an upmarket restaurant in Paris. |
31 December 1983 | Bombing | 5 | 13 | TGV train and Marseille station bombings: Bombing of a TGV fast train between Marseille and Paris and the Saint Charles train station in Marseille, attributed to Carlos the Jackal. [17] |
3 May 1984 | Bombing | 0 | 13 | Alfortville Armenian Genocide Memorial bombings |
7 February 1984 | Shooting | 2 | 1 | Assassination of Gholam Ali Oveisi, a former military governor of Tehran, and his brother in Paris where they were in exile. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility. |
8 February 1984 | Shooting | 1 | 0 | Assassination of the United Arab Emirates' ambassador to France, Khalifa Abdel Aziz al-Mubarak on a Paris street, attributed to the Abu Nidal Organization (ANO). |
22 April 1984 | Bombing | 0 | 1 | Sonauto and Sony-France bombings damaged buildings owned by companies importing Japanese goods, attributed to 'anarchist group' to protest 'a death sentence passed against a fellow anarchist in Japan.' [20] |
2 August 1984 | Bombing | 0 | 6 | Bombing of the European Space Agency headquarters in Paris, by Action directe. |
11 November 1984 | Shooting | 2 | 5 | 1984 Châteaubriant shooting: A far-right extremist killed two Turkish workers and wounded five others. [21] |
25 January 1985 | Shooting | 1 | 0 | Assassination of René Audran, senior official of the French Ministry of Defence, by Action directe. |
23 February 1985 | Bombing | 1 | 14 | February 1985 Paris bombing: Bomb attack against the Marks & Spencer store in boulevard Haussmann, ordered by the 15 May Organization. [22] [23] |
29 March 1985 | Bombing | 0 | 18 | Rivoli Beaubourg cinema bombing: Bomb attack against the Rivoli Beaubourg cinema in Paris during a Jewish film festival. [19] [22] [24] |
25 September 1985 | Shooting | 4 | 1 | Monbar Hotel attack in Bayonne, in which four members of ETA who police believed to be senior figures in the organisation were killed by the Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación (GAL). |
7 December 1985 | Bombing | 0 | 43 | Double bomb attack against the Printemps Haussmann store in Paris, attributed to the Hezbollah. [22] [23] |
3–5 February 1986 | Bombings | 1 | 35 | Three bomb attacks in 3 days against Paris's Claridge Hotel on the Champs-Élysées, a bookshop on the Place Saint-Michel and a Fnac store on Les Halles by the CSPPA and Hezbollah. [22] [23] |
20 March 1986 | Bombing | 2 | 29 | Bomb attack against the Point Show gallery on the Champs-Élysées by the CSPPA and Hezbollah. [22] |
9 July 1986 | Bombing | 1 | 21 | 1986 Paris police station attack: Bombing of the Brigade de répression du banditisme office in Paris, by Action directe. |
5–15 September 1986 | Bombings | 5 | 131 | Four bomb attacks, against a post office in the Hôtel de Ville, a Casino caféteria in La Défense, a restaurant on the Champs-Élysées and an office in the Préfecture de police by the CSPPA and Hezbollah. [22] |
17 September 1986 | Bombing | 7 | 55 | Bomb attack against the Tati store on rue de Rennes in Paris, attributed to the CSPPA and Hezbollah. [1] |
17 November 1986 | Shooting | 1 | 0 | Assassination of Georges Besse, CEO of Renault, by Action directe. [11] |
22 October 1988 | Arson | 0 | 14 | 1988 attack on Saint-Michel cinema in Paris carried out by an integrist Catholic group to protest against the showing of The Last Temptation of Christ. |
24 December 1994 | Hijacking | 4 (+3) | 25 | Hijacking of Air France Flight 8969 by members of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA). [1] [18] |
July–October 1995 | Bombings | 8 | 140+ | 1995 Paris Métro and RER bombings, 8 bomb attacks carried out by the Armed Islamic Group. [1] |
3 December 1996 | Bombing | 4 | 170 | 1996 Paris Métro bombing. Bomb attack against the RER B Gare de Port-Royal in Paris, attributed to the Armed Islamic Group. [1] |
8 February 1998 | Shooting | 1 | 0 | Assassination of Claude Érignac, prefect of Corsica, by Corsican nationalists. [1] |
16 February 1999 | Hostage Taking | 0 | 0 | Hostage taking at the Kenya Embassy in Paris attributed to Kurdish protesters. This was in response to the Kenyan government deporting Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan, who was wanted in Turkey on terrorism charges. No casualties were reported. [25] |
19 April 2000 | Bombing | 1 | 0 | Bomb attack against a branch of McDonald's in Quévert, Brittany, attributed to extreme Breton nationalists. [1] |
Date | Type | Dead | Injured | Location and description |
---|---|---|---|---|
20 July 2003 | Bombing | 0 | 16 | 2003 Nice bombing: Double attack against the regional directorates of customs and the treasury in Nice, claimed by the National Liberation Front of Corsica (FLNC). [1] |
8 October 2004 | Bombing | 0 | 10 | Bomb attack against the Indonesian Embassy in Paris, claimed by the Armed French Islamic Front [26] |
1 December 2007 | Shooting | 2 | 0 | Killing of two members of the Spanish Civil Guard carrying out surveillance against ETA members in Capbreton, Landes. [1] |
16 March 2010 | Shooting | 1 | 0 | A French policeman was shot dead by members of ETA when he stopped their car at a routine checkpoint at Dammarie Les Lys, outside of Paris. [27] |
11 March 2012–22 March 2012 | Shooting | 7 | 5 | Toulouse and Montauban shootings, murders of three French paratroopers, and a French Rabbi and three French schoolchildren (aged eight, six and three), carried out over a period of 11 days by Mohammed Merah. [1] |
9 January 2013– 10 January 2013 | Shooting | 3 | 0 | Triple Murder of Kurdish Activists in Paris. During the night of January 9, 2013, three Kurdish women's activists, Fidan Doğan, 28, Sakine Cansız, 54, (who is the co-founder of the PKK), and Leyla Şaylemez, 24, were murdered execution style at the Centre d'Information sur le Kurdistan. [28] French authorities arrested Ömer Güney for the murders. Güney died of a brain tumor in 2016 while in prison, however, in May 2019, French police reopened investigations into the murders due to speculation of Turkish government involvement in the killings. [29] [30] |
25 May 2013 | Stabbing | 0 | 1 | 2013 La Défense attack by an Islamist knifeman against a French soldier in the Paris suburb of La Défense. |
20 December 2014 | Stabbing | 0 (+1) | 3 | 2014 Tours police station stabbing. A man yelling "Allahu Akbar" attacked a police office in Joué-lès-Tours with a knife. He was killed and 3 police officers were injured. |
7 January 2015–9 January 2015 | Shooting | 17 (+3) | 22 | January 2015 Île-de-France attacks, 8 cartoonists, 2 guests, and two police officers are murdered at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo office in Paris, carried out by Saïd and Chérif Kouachi, two Islamist gunmen who identified themselves as belonging to Al-Qaeda in Yemen. [1] During this period, a third Islamist gunman and close friend of the Kouachi brothers, Amedy Coulibaly was responsible for two shootings and an hostage taking at a Hypercacher kosher market. He said he synchronized his attacks with the Kouachi brothers. Coulibaly had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. |
3 February 2015 | Stabbing | 0 | 3 | 3 military men, guarding a Jewish community center in Nice, are attacked by Moussa Coulibaly (not related to the January Coulibaly attacks). |
19 April 2015 | Shooting | 1 | 0 (+1) | Unsuccessful attack against 2 churches in Villejuif by an Algerian jihadist. He killed a woman probably when trying to steal her car but accidentally shot himself in the leg, putting an end to his plans. [31] |
26 June 2015 | Beheading | 1 | 2 | Saint-Quentin-Fallavier attack. An Islamist delivery driver probably linked to ISIS decapitated a man and rammed a company van into gas cylinders at the Air Products' gas factory in an attempt to blow up the building. |
21 August 2015 | Shooting and stabbing | 0 | 3 (+1) | 2015 Thalys train attack. An attempted mass shooting occurred on a train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris. Four people were injured, including the assailant who was subdued by other passengers. [32] |
13 November 2015–14 November 2015 | Shootings, hostage taking and suicide bombings | 131 (+7) | 413 | November 2015 Paris attacks. The single deadliest terrorist attack in French history. Multiple shooting and grenade attacks occurred on a Friday night; among the locations targeted were a music venue, sports stadium and several bar and restaurant terraces. Ninety persons were killed during a siege at an Eagles of Death Metal concert inside the Bataclan. French president François Hollande evacuated from a football match between France and Germany at the Stade de France, venue for the UEFA Euro 2016 Final, after three separate suicide bombings over the course of about 40 minutes. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks and President Hollande named the Paris attacks an "'act of war'". [33] |
1 January 2016 | Vehicle ramming | 0 | 2 | A man rammed his car twice into 4 soldiers protecting a mosque in Valence. He said he wanted to kill troops and jihadi propaganda images were found on his computer. A soldier and a civilian suffered minor injuries, while the other 3 troops were uninjured. [34] |
7 January 2016 | Stabbing | 0 (+1) | 0 | January 2016 Paris police station attack, a jihadist wearing a fake explosive belt attacked police officers in the Goutte d'Or district in Paris with a meat cleaver, while shouting "Allahu Akbar". He was shot dead and one policeman receiving injuries. The ISIS flag and a clearly written claim in Arabic,[ clarification needed ] were found on the attacker.[ citation needed ] |
13 June 2016 | Stabbing | 2 (+1) | 0 | 2016 Magnanville stabbing, a police officer and his wife, a police secretary, were stabbed to death in their home in Magnanville by a jihadist. ISIS claimed responsibility. |
14 July 2016 | Vehicle ramming | 86 (+1) | 434 | A 19-tonne cargo truck was deliberately driven into crowds celebrating Bastille Day on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice. The driver was Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, a Tunisian resident of France. The attack ended following an exchange of gunfire, during which Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was shot and killed by police. |
26 July 2016 | Stabbing | 1 (+2) | 1 | 2016 Normandy church attack, two terrorists attacked a church during a mass, killing an 86-year-old priest. ISIS claimed responsibility. |
3 February 2017 | Stabbing | 0 | 1 (+1) | 2017 Paris machete attack. A soldier near the Louvre museum opened fire on a man who attempted to enter the museum with a machete. The man was shouting "Allahu Akbar" and injured the soldier's scalp. [35] |
16 March 2017 | Letter bomb | 0 | 1 | A letter bomb probably sent by Greek anarchist organization Conspiracy of Cells of Fire exploded at the French office of the IMF injuring one person. [36] |
18 March 2017 | Shooting | 0 (+1) | 2 | 2017 Orly Airport attack. A policeman was shot and injured in the Paris suburb of Garges-les-Gonesse by an attacker who was later shot dead at Orly Airport near Paris after trying to grab a soldier's rifle. [37] |
20 April 2017 | Shooting | 1 (+1) | 3 | April 2017 Champs-Élysées attack. An Islamist opened fire on police officers on the Champs-Élysées. ISIS claimed responsibility. [38] [39] [40] |
6 June 2017 | Melee attack | 0 | 1 (+1) | 2017 Notre Dame attack. An Algerian Islamist attacked a police officer with a hammer in front of Notre-Dame de Paris. He was shot by a second policeman and arrested. He had pledged allegiance to ISIS. [41] |
19 June 2017 | Vehicle ramming | 0 (+1) | 0 | June 2017 Champs-Élysées car ramming attack. A jihadist rammed his car into a police car. He was killed and the Department of Interior stated that explosives, AKM assault rifle and handguns have been found in his car. The attacker had pledged allegiance to ISIS. [42] |
9 August 2017 | Vehicle ramming | 0 | 7 (+1) | 2017 Levallois-Perret attack. A man rammed his car into soldiers near their barracks outside Paris. He was arrested on the highway after a shootout. [43] |
15 September 2017 | Melee attack | 0 | 2 | A man sought by police who are investigating a possible terrorist motive attacked two women with a hammer in Chalon-sur-Saône near Lyon about 15 minutes apart, by a man shouting in Arabic. Earlier a knife-wielding man attacked and was stopped by an anti-terrorist soldier on patrol in Paris Metro train station without injury. [44] |
1 October 2017 | Stabbing | 2 (+1) | 0 | 2017 Marseille stabbing. A man stabbed to death a 20-year-old woman and a 17-year-old girl at Marseille-Saint-Charles station. Attacker was shot dead. He was heard shouting 'Allahu Akbar'. ISIS claimed responsibility. [45] |
23 March 2018 | Shooting, hostage taking | 4 (+1) | 15 | Carcassonne and Trèbes attack. A gunman affiliated with ISIS attacked and stole a car in Carcassonne, killing the passenger and wounding the driver. He arrived in Trèbes and shot at a group of police officers who were jogging. Then, he attacked a supermarket, where three people were killed and several others were injured. [46] |
1 May 2018 | Arson | 0 | 0 | Militants set fire to two La Poste vehicles along Rue Galilee in Bouguenais, Pays de la Loire, France. There were no reported casualties in the attack. Action Directe Anarchiste (ADA) claimed responsibility for the attack. [47] [48] |
12 May 2018 | Stabbing | 1 (+1) | 4 | 2018 Paris knife attack. A Chechnyan-born French Muslim, armed with a knife, killed one pedestrian and injured several more near the Garnier Opera in Paris before being fatally shot by police. |
30 June 2018 | Bomb plot | 0 | 0 | Asadollah Asadi, an Iranian diplomat, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for attempting to plant a bomb at an opposition rally in Paris. [49] [50] |
11 December 2018 | Shooting and stabbing | 5 (+1) | 11 | 2018 Strasbourg attack. A gunman opened fire just outside the Strasbourg Christmas Market, killing 5 and injuring 11. Killed in a gunfight with security forces two days later. |
5 March 2019 | Stabbing | 0 (+1) | 2 (+1) | An inmate at the high-security Condé-sur-Sarthe penitentiary stabbed two prison guards. The attack was described as a terrorist incident by French Interior Minister. [51] |
24 May 2019 | Bombing | 0 | 14 | 2019 Lyon bombing. A package bomb packed with nails exploded in a centre city shopping district of Lyon, President Macron has called it an "attack." [52] [53] The attacker had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. [54] |
3 October 2019 | Stabbing | 4 (+1) | 1 | Paris police headquarters stabbing. A man who worked at Paris' police headquarters stabbed four of his colleagues to death. The counter-terrorism head said that the attacker had radical and extremist religious views. [55] |
3 January 2020 | Stabbing | 1 (+1) | 2 | 2020 Villejuif stabbing. 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 C, a follower of salafism, an extremist sect of Islam. |
5 January 2020 | Attempted stabbing | 0 | 0 (+1) | French police on Sunday shot and wounded a man who had rushed toward a group of policemen with a knife shouting “Allahu akbar” in the eastern city of Metz. The suspect was on an official list of those monitored for links to militant groups. [56] |
3 February 2020 | Stabbing | 0 | 1 | In Metz, a police officer was injured when stabbed by an Islamic State sympathiser. |
4 April 2020 | Stabbing | 2 | 5 | 2020 Romans-sur-Isère knife attack. On April 4, 2020 Two people were killed and five wounded in a knife attack, in what the interior minister called a terrorist incident. Prosecutors said the suspect was a Sudanese refugee in his 30s who lived in Romans-sur-Isère the town of the attack. [57] |
27 April 2020 | Vehicle Ramming | 0 | 2 | Two 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. [58] |
25 September 2020 | Stabbing | 0 | 2 | 2020 Paris stabbing attack. Four people were wounded (two serious), after a male attacked them with a butcher knife outside of the old Charlie Hebdo magazine headquarters. The magazine had just re-published the magazine cover which sparked a similar, more brutal attack in 2015. French police have arrested two suspects and a terrorism inquiry has been launched. [59] |
16 October 2020 | Beheading | 1 (+1) | 0 | A Chechen refugee beheaded Samuel Paty in Éragny-sur-Oise, [60] northwest of Paris. Paty was a middle school teacher who had recently held a class on freedom of speech in which he showed caricatures of the Muslim prophet Mohammed. [61] |
29 October 2020 | Stabbing | 3 | 0 | 2020 Nice stabbing, 3 were killed in Notre-Dame de Nice. [62] |
31 October 2020 | Shooting | 0 | 1 | A Greek Orthodox priest was seriously wounded when an assailant shot at him in Lyon. [63] |
17 March 2021 | Stabbing | 0 | 1 | An elderly man standing outside a Church had his throat slit by a knife wielding assailant. [64] |
23 April 2021 | Stabbing | 1(+1) | 0 | A French policewoman was stabbed to death outside a police station in Rambouillet. The attacker shouted 'allahu akbar' as he carried out the attack and was shot dead by French authorities. The attacker was aged 37 and was Tunisian-born. French president, Emmanuel Macron stated that France would 'never give in to Islamic extremism' in response to the attack. [65] [66] |
28 May 2021 | Stabbing and shooting | 0(+1) | 3 | A French policewoman was critically injured after she was stabbed multiple times in the city of Nantes. The perpetrator was known to be a man in his 40s, called Ndiaga Dieye. After he stabbed the policewoman, he stole her pistol and fled the scene but was eventually found by French gendarmes, leading to a shootout in which two gendarmes were injured. The assailant was shot dead by French gendarmes. The assailant was known to authorities as a radical Islamist and had only been released from prison in March, 2021. [67] [68] [69] [70] |
22 November 2022 | 0 | 1 | A 22-year-old man known to authorities as a radical Islamist attacked a police officer by shouting Allah Akbar while in police custody at the Annecy police station, he was indicted for "willful violence against a person holding public authority, in relation with a terrorist enterprise". The National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor's Office is seized. [71] | |
23 December 2022 | Shooting | 3 | 3(+1) | 2022 Paris Shooting. A 69 year old man, identified only as William M, shot 3 people to death and injured 3 others in three locations in Paris's 10th Arrondissement near the Ahmet-Kaya Cultural Center, in an act that was confessed to have been motivated by anti-Kurdish and far-right sentiments. [72] The attacker had previously been arrested for carrying out violence against refugees. Among the killed were a man who frequented Ahmet-Kaya, Mîr Perwer a Kurdish singer who was declared refugee due to his participation in the Peoples' Democratic Party (Turkey), and Emine Kara, a Kurdish rights activist who previously fought with Rojava against The Islamic State, and had been preparing a demonstration in remembrance of three Kurdish activists who had been murdered in the 10th arrondissement almost 10 years prior. [73] The shooting sparked large protests. [74] [75] |
13 October 2023 | Stabbing | 1 | 3 | Arras school stabbing. A teacher was killed, and three others were seriously wounded in a knife attack at the Gambetta-Carnot secondary school in Arras. The attacker is of Chechen origin and known to the security services for his involvement with Islamist extremism. |
3 December 2023 | Stabbing | 1 | 2 | 2023 Paris stabbing. A 26-year-old French-Iranian man attacks passers-by in the 15th arrondissement of Paris. The assailant is said to have shouted "Allah Akbar", and to have had psychiatric problems and a history of terrorism. [76] |
Year | Number of incidents | Deaths | Injuries |
---|---|---|---|
2021 | 3 | 1 | 4 |
2020 | 9 | 7 | 14 |
2019 | 3 | 4 | 16 |
2018 | 3 | 10 | 30 |
2017 | 9 | 3 | 16 |
2016 | 12 | 89 | 451 |
2015 | 36 | 161 | 446 |
2014 | 14 | 1 | 15 |
2013 | 12 | 0 | 5 |
2012 | 65 | 7 | 8 |
2011 | 8 | 0 | 4 |
2010 | 3 | 1 | 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 | 7 | 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 | 107 | 17 | 83 |
1984 | 145 | 15 | 57 |
1983 | 121 | 19 | 179 |
1982 | 62 | 17 | 143 |
1981 | 66 | 8 | 78 |
1980 | 94 | 20 | 74 |
1979 | 412 | 11 | 41 |
1978 | 59 | 21 | 17 |
1977 | 53 | 3 | 7 |
1976 | 58 | 7 | 10 |
1975 | 39 | 3 | 25 |
1974 | 29 | 3 | 32 |
1973 | 14 | 4 | 20 |
1972 | 9 | 1 | 0 |
1971 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
1970 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Total | 2,979 | 448 | 1,779 |
There is a long history of terrorism in Europe. This has often been linked to nationalist and separatist movements, while other acts have been related to politics, religious extremism, or organized crime. Terrorism in the European sections of the intercontinental countries of Turkey and Russia are not included in this list.
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.
On 7 January 2015, at about 11:30 a.m. in Paris, France, the employees of the French satirical weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo were targeted in a shooting attack by two French-born Algerian Muslim brothers, Saïd Kouachi and Chérif Kouachi. Armed with rifles and other weapons, the duo murdered 12 people and injured 11 others; they identified themselves as members of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which claimed responsibility for the attack. They fled after the shooting, triggering a manhunt, and were killed by the GIGN on 9 January. The Kouachi brothers' attack was followed by several related Islamist terrorist attacks across the Île-de-France between 7 and 9 January 2015, including the Hypercacher kosher supermarket siege, in which a French-born Malian Muslim took hostages and murdered four people before being killed by French commandos.
From 7 to 9 January 2015, terrorist attacks occurred across the Île-de-France region, particularly in Paris. Three attackers killed a total of 17 people in four shooting attacks, and police then killed the three assailants. The attacks also wounded 22 other people. A fifth shooting attack did not result in any fatalities. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) claimed responsibility and said that the coordinated attacks had been planned for years. The claim of responsibility for the deadly attack on the magazine came in a video showing AQAP commander Nasr Ibn Ali al-Ansi, with gunmen in the background that were later identified as the Kouachi brothers. However, while authorities say the video is authentic, there is no proof that AQAP helped to carry out the attacks. Amedy Coulibaly, who committed another leg of the attacks claimed that he belonged to ISIS before he died.
On 15 January 2015, Belgian police carried out a raid on premises in Verviers, Belgium. According to news sources, the raids were an anti-terrorist operation against Islamist radicals.
On 21 August 2015, a man opened fire on a Thalys train on its way from Amsterdam to Paris. Four people were injured, including the assailant. French, American and British passengers confronted the attacker and subdued him. For their heroism, they received France's highest decoration, the Legion of Honour. The assailant, later identified as Ayoub El Khazzani, initially claimed to be only a robber, but later confessed that he had wanted to "kill Americans" as revenge for bombings in Syria.
A series of coordinated Islamist terrorist attacks took place on Friday, 13 November 2015 in Paris, France, and the city's northern suburb, Saint-Denis. Beginning at 21:16, three suicide bombers struck outside the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, during an international football match, after failing to gain entry to the stadium. Another group of attackers then fired on crowded cafés and restaurants in Paris, with one of them also detonating an explosive, killing himself in the process. A third group carried out another mass shooting and took hostages at an Eagles of Death Metal concert attended by 1,500 people in the Bataclan theatre, leading to a stand-off with police. The attackers were either shot or detonated suicide vests when police raided the theatre.
Salah Abdeslam is a Belgian-born Islamic terrorist who was sentenced to life in prison in France in 2022 as the only surviving member of the 10-man unit that carried out the attacks in Paris on 13 November 2015, in which 130 people were killed and more than 490 injured.
On 22 March 2016, two coordinated terrorist attacks in and close to Brussels, Belgium, were carried out by the Islamic State (IS). Two suicide bombers detonated bombs at Brussels Airport in Zaventem just outside Brussels, and one detonated a bomb on a train leaving Maelbeek/Maalbeek metro station in the European Quarter of Brussels. Thirty-two people were killed and more than 300 were injured. Three perpetrators also died. A third airport attacker fled the scene without detonating his bomb, which was later found in a search of the airport. A second metro attacker also fled, taking his bomb with him. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks.
The Brussels Islamic State terror cell was a group involved in large-scale terrorist attacks in Paris in November 2015 and Brussels in March 2016. The terror cell was connected to the Islamic State (IS), a jihadist terrorist organisation primarily based in Syria and Iraq.
Islamic terrorism in Europe has been carried out by the Islamic State (ISIL) or Al-Qaeda as well as Islamist lone wolves since the late 20th century. Europol, which releases the annual EU Terrorism Situation and Trend report (TE-SAT), used the term "Islamist terrorism" in the years 2006–2010, "religiously inspired terrorism" 2011–2014, and has used "jihadist terrorism" since 2015. Europol defines jihadism as "a violent ideology exploiting traditional Islamic concepts".
ISIL-related terrorist attacks in France refers to the terrorist activity of the Islamic State in France, including attacks committed by Islamic State-inspired lone wolves. The French military operation Opération Sentinelle has been ongoing in France since the January 2015 Île-de-France attacks.
On 19 June 2017, a car loaded with guns and explosives was rammed into a convoy of Gendarmerie vehicles on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, France. The driver, identified as Djaziri Adam Lotfi was killed as a detonation clouded the car in orange smoke. The attacker had been on terrorism watchlists for Islamic extremism since 2014, and pledged his allegiance to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi before the attack. In a letter to his family he stated that for years he had supported "the Mujahedeen who fight to save Islam and the Muslims," having practiced shooting "to prepare for jihad," and stated that the attack should be treated as a "martyrdom operation."
This article covers attacks and activity of terrorism in Belgium.
On 1 October 2017, a man killed two women at the Saint-Charles train station in Marseille, France. The women, 20-year-old and 21-year-old cousins, were attacked by an illegal immigrant from Tunisia using a knife. Patrolling soldiers, who had been deployed on national soil following an increase in Islamic terrorist threats, shot him dead at the scene. The brother of the attacker was later arrested and faced preliminary charges of suspicion of involvement in the train station attack. French police were cautious as to whether it was a terrorist attack, but it was later classified as jihadist terrorism by Europol.
On 23 March 2018, an Islamic terrorist carried out three attacks in the town of Carcassonne and nearby village of Trèbes in the Aude department in southwestern France, killing three people and injuring fifteen.
On the evening of 11 December 2018, a terrorist attack occurred in Strasbourg, France, when a man attacked civilians in the city's busy Christkindelsmärik with a revolver and a knife, killing five and wounding 11 before fleeing in a taxi. Authorities called the shooting an act of terrorism.
On 23 December 2022, a mass shooting occurred at three Kurdish locations in the 10th arrondissement of Paris, France. Three people were killed, and three others were wounded in and around a Kurdish cultural center on Rue d'Enghien.
The 2023 Brussels shooting was an Islamist terrorist attack carried out at about 19:15 (CEST) on 16 October when Abdesalem Lassoued, a 45-year-old Tunisian living illegally in Brussels, Belgium, opened fire on Swedish football supporters at the intersection of two boulevards just off the Square Sainctelette, leaving two dead and one injured. The victims were on their way to a football match at the King Baudouin Stadium.
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: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)Investigators found bombs of aerosol paint in his bag. No doubt to blot out the masterpieces of the museum.
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