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.

File:Terrorist incidents map of France 1970-2015.svg

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.

Terrorist incidents in France

Year	Number of incidents	Deaths	Injuries
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	527	2,488

Terrorism in (or involving) France

Abu Nidal Organization	Action Directe	Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula	ASALA (Armenian nationalists)
Carlos the Jackal	Charles Martel Group	CSPPA (Lebanese faction)	GIA (Islamic extremists)
Guards of Islam (Iranian agents)	Hezbollah & Islamic Jihad	Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant	PFLP (Palestinian nationalists)

List of significant terrorist incidents inside France

Main article: List of terrorist incidents in 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. See also: 1980 Paris synagogue bombing
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.
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.
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. See also: 1981 Turkish consulate attack in Paris
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.
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.
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. See also: Goldenberg restaurant attack
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.
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.
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. Main article: 1983 Orly Airport attack
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 (17e 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. See also: Toulouse and Montauban shootings
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. See also: Toulouse and Montauban shootings
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. Main articles: Charlie Hebdo shooting and January 2015 Île-de-France attacks
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. Main articles: Porte de Vincennes siege and January 2015 Île-de-France attacks
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. Main article: Saint-Quentin-Fallavier attack
21 August 2015		Oignies	0	5	Small arms, bladed weapons	Ayoub El Kahzani	-- Transport At about 17:45 CEST, a 26-year-old Moroccan national carrying an AK-47, a semi-automatic pistol, 300 rounds and a box cutter, opens fire on a Thalys train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris. The gunman was attacked and subdued by four men (three Americans and one British), who beat him unconscious. The train was diverted to Arras where the man was arrested and identified. The man had been previously flagged with an "S" card, France's warning alert for someone believed to be a national security risk. Main article: 2015 Thalys train attack
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, three separate explosions and six mass shootings occurred, including bombings near the Stade de France in the northern suburb of Saint-Denis. 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. Main article: November 2015 Paris 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. Main article: 2016 Nice attack
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". Main article: 2016 Magnanville stabbing
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. Main article: 2017 Paris machete attack
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. Main article: 2017 shooting of Paris police officers
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 Carcassone, 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. Main article: Carcassonne and Trèbes attack
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. Main article: 2018 Paris knife attack

List of international terrorist incidents with significant French casualties

• 4 French nationals died as a result of the Étoile du Sud hotel attack in Grand-Bassam in Ivory Coast on 13 March 2016.
• 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.
• 4 French nationals died and seven were injured as a result of the Bardo National Museum attack in Tunisia on 18 March 2015.
• 2 French nationals died as a result of the assault on the Nairobi Westgate shopping complex in Kenya from 21–24 September 2013.
• 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.
• 2 French nationals died as a result of attacks on several hotels and other tourist locations in Mumbai in India from 26–29 November 2008.
• 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.
• 4 French nationals died as a result of the bombing of several Balinese tourist clubs in Indonesia on 12 October 2002.

Foiled attacks

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.

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

Terrorism and mental illness

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. 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.” 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. In September, 2017, the prosecutor officially characterized the murder as an "antisemitic" hate-crime crime.

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.”

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