The suspect behind Friday morning’s fatal stabbing at a mosque in France’s La Grand-Combe is still at large.
The deadly attack claimed the life of a 23 or 24-year-old worshipper, identified as Aboubakar, who is reported to be originally from Mali.
The suspect, a 20 year old Frenchman, reportedly filmed himself after the killing at the Khadidja Mosque in southern France, brandishing a knife and making insulting remarks about Allah and the victim, who lay dying on the ground, French media reported.
Investigators are examining a possible Islamophobic motive, according to local media reports.
Ales public prosecutor Abdelkrim Grini said the National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office (Pnat) is monitoring the case, although it has not yet formally taken it over. Grini noted that the victim was a regular at the mosque in Trescol, a hamlet within La Grand-Combe, while the suspected attacker had never been seen there before.
Surveillance cameras inside and around the mosque captured images of the suspect, who appears to be unknown to both local residents and mosque-goers.
According to sources cited by Le Parisien, after repeatedly stabbing the victim, the assailant recorded the scene with his cell phone.
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Meanwhile, the La Grand-Combe community is rallying to raise funds to repatriate the body of the victim to his family in Mali.
Yesterday Prime Minister François Bayrou denounced the fatal stabbing, calling it an “Islamophobic atrocity.”
“A worshipper was murdered yesterday,” wrote Bayrou in a message posted on X. “The Islamophobic atrocity was displayed in a video,” he added.
“We stand with the victim’s loved ones, with the believers who are so shocked. State resources are mobilised to ensure the killer is apprehended and punished,” wrote Bayrou.
The killing itself was not shown on the images posted on social media but was filmed by security cameras inside the mosque. In his own footage the killer notices these cameras and is heard saying: “I am going to be arrested – that’s for sure.”
After initially praying alongside the man, the attacker then stabbed the victim up to 50 times before fleeing the scene.
The body of the victim was only discovered later in the morning when other worshippers arrived at the mosque for Friday prayers.
