On 25 September 2020, two people were injured in a stabbing outside the former headquarters of the French satirical magazine ''

Charlie Hebdo ''Charlie Hebdo'' (; ) is a French satirical weekly magazine, featuring cartoons, reports, polemics, and jokes. The publication has been described as anti-racist, sceptical, secular, libertarian, and within the tradition of left-wing radicalism ...

'' in Paris. The building had previously been the site of an Islamic terrorist attack in 2015. The French Interior Minister

Gérald Darmanin Gérald Moussa Jean Darmanin (; born 11 October 1982) is a French politician serving as Minister of Justice (France), Minister of Justice in the Bayrou government. He previously served as Minister of the Interior (France), Minister of the Inter ...

considered this to be "clearly an act of Islamist terrorism." A man from Pakistan, suspected of carrying out the attacks, was arrested near the scene. He was later identified as Zaheer Hassan Mehmood. Six other suspects were subsequently arrested in Paris in connection with the attack. They were convicted and sentenced to prison terms reaching up to 30 years in 2025.

Stabbing

The stabbings occurred in the

11th arrondissement of Paris The 11th arrondissement of Paris (''XIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 Arrondissements of Paris, arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, the arrondissement is referred to as ''le onzième'' (; "the eleventh"). The ar ...

, near the

Boulevard Richard-Lenoir The Boulevard Richard-Lenoir (), running from the Bastille The Bastille (, ) was a fortress in Paris, known as the Bastille Saint-Antoine. It played an important role in the internal conflicts of France and for most of its history was used ...

. The victims consisted of a man and a woman. Both were employees of the television production company Premières Lignes who were on a cigarette break and sustained serious injuries from a meat cleaver. The attacker fled to the

Paris Metro Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

but was arrested in the nearby

Bastille The Bastille (, ) was a fortress in Paris, known as the Bastille Saint-Antoine. It played an important role in the internal conflicts of France and for most of its history was used as a state prison by the kings of France. It was stormed by a ...

neighbourhood with blood on his clothing. A suspicious package was found near the scene, but was found to be harmless. Nearby

stations were closed while five schools were placed under a five-hour lockdown. A security cordon was established in the arrondissement.

Response

Later that day, the site was visited by Prime Minister

Jean Castex Jean Castex (; born 25 June 1965) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 3 July 2020 to 16 May 2022. He was a member of The Republicans (LR) until 2020. Castex served for twelve years as mayor of the small town of ...

, Interior Minister

and Paris Mayor

Anne Hidalgo Ana María "Anne" Hidalgo Aleu (, ; born 19 June 1959) is a Spanish-French politician who has served as Mayor of Paris since 2014, the first woman to hold the office. She is a member of the Socialist Party (France), Socialist Party (PS). Hidalg ...

, during which Castex reiterated the government's "firm commitment to combat terrorism by all possible means".

Investigation

Main suspect

The main suspect was identified as Zaheer Hassan Mehmood, a 25-year-old Pakistani man, who is charged with "

attempted murder Attempted murder is a crime of attempt in various jurisdictions. Canada Section 239 of the ''Criminal Code'' makes attempted murder punishable by a maximum of life imprisonment. If a gun is used, the minimum sentence is four, five or seve ...

in association with a terrorist enterprise." The suspect acknowledged having carried out the attack for religious reasons. He claimed to be 18 in order to be eligible for

social welfare Welfare spending is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifically to social insurance p ...

benefits. Before the attack, he stated in a video that he was seeking vengeance against ''

'' for publishing caricatures of Islam's prophet Muhammad. The suspect left his village in

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

province in

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

in early 2018 and came to Europe, following his brothers and other young men from the village. According to

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

, villagers considered the suspect a hero for carrying out the Paris attack. The suspect's father championed his son's actions, but was warned by Pakistani police against speaking publicly. In France, the suspect moved to

Pantin Pantin () is a Communes of France, commune in the northeastern suburbs of Paris, Île-de-France, France. It is located from the Kilometre Zero, centre of Paris. In 2019 its population was estimated to be 59,846. Pantin is located on the edge of ...

, a working-class district with many immigrants from North Africa,

Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lie south of the Sahara. These include Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the list of sovereign states and ...

and Pakistan. He shared an apartment with several other Pakistanis above a Hookah bar. During the course of the investigation, it was found that Mahmood had carried out the attack not knowing that ''Charlie Hebdo'' had moved to a secret location following the 2015 attack. He was also found to have been influenced by radical Pakistani Islamic preacher

Khadim Hussain Rizvi Khadim Hussain Rizvi (; 22 May 1966 – 19 November 2020) was a Pakistani Islamic scholar and the founder and Amir of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, a religiopolitical organization founded in 2015, known to protest against any change to Pakistan' ...

. On 24 January 2025, Mahmood was convicted of attempted murder and terrorist conspiracy and sentenced to 30 years' imprisonment and expulsion from France upon his release. Mahmood apologised to the victims.

Accomplices

In December 2020, four Pakistanis aged 17 to 21 were found to have been in contact with the assailant by authorities and were taken into custody. Two were apprehended in the

Gironde Gironde ( , US usually , ; , ) is the largest department in the southwestern French region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Named after the Gironde estuary, a major waterway, its prefecture is Bordeaux. In 2019, it had a population of 1,623,749.

, a third in

Caen Caen (; ; ) is a Communes of France, commune inland from the northwestern coast of France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Calvados (department), Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inha ...

and the fourth in the Paris region. According to authorities, they had "spread their ideology and one of them had expressed his hatred against France before the attack". The investigation had also found numerous messages published on the

TikTok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...

social media network where the suspects expressed their hatred towards Muhammad caricatures and "glorified" the assault by their compatriot. On the same day as Mahmood's conviction, five of his accomplices were sentenced to between three and 12 years' imprisonment on terrorist conspiracy charges for supporting Mahmood.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paris stabbing attack, 2020

Stabbing attack Stabbing attacks, which have been used as a tactic for thousands of years, became an increasingly common form of terrorism targeting random civilians in the 21st century, in particular during the 2010s and 2020s. Incitement by terrorist groups ...