Man arrested for Paris knife attack transferred to psychiatric unit

PARIS - A man who was arrested this week for allegedly attacking and wounding three women with kitchen knives has been taken from custody and placed in a police psychiatric unit, prosecutors told AFP.

The man, who has not been identified, was stopped by an off-duty policeman on July 27 just after he was seen stabbing the women aged 19, 24 and 36 in the capital’s north-west 17th arrondissement.

Two of the women were seriously wounded but not in critical condition, according to the interior ministry.

Witnesses reported the assailant making incoherent statements at the scene, according to the ministry.

“Following a behavioural examination” on July 28, “the mental state of the suspect was deemed incompatible with custody” in a cell, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.

The man was now receiving “psychiatric attention”, it said. AFP