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. 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.
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.[1]
| Date | Type | Dead | Injured | Location and description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bombing | 22 | 50+ | Plot of the rue Saint-Nicaise, an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Napoleon Bonaparte in Paris.[2] | ||
| 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] | ||
| Bombing | 8 | 106 | Unsuccessful attempt by Italian nationalist Felice Orsini to assassinate Napoleon III.[4] | ||
| 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.[5] | ||
| 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.[6] | ||
| Bombing | 1 | 20 | French anarchist Émile Henry detonated a bomb at the Café Terminus in the Parisian Gare Saint-Lazare.[7] | ||
| 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.[8] |
| Date | Type | Dead | Injured | Location and description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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.[9] | ||
| Shooting | 1 | 0 | Assassination of Ukrainian nationalist Symon Petliura in Paris on rue Racine, by a Russian revolutionary Sholom Schwartzbard.[10] | ||
| Shooting | 6 | 5 | Assassination of Alexander I of Yugoslavia and French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou in Marseille, by a Bulgarian revolutionary Vlado Chernozemski.[11] | ||
| 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. | ||
| 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. | ||
| 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.[12] | ||
| 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. | ||
| 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.[13] | ||
| 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. | |
| Bombing | 1 | 12 | Bomb attack against the Quai d'Orsay, carried out by the OAS.[14] | ||
| Bombing | 3 | 47 | 1962 Issy-les-Moulineaux bombing Car bomb attack in Issy-les-Moulineaux, carried out by the OAS. | ||
| 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. | |
| Bombing | 0 | 0 | Besançon courthouse attack : bomb attack in Besançon, carried out by the UDR/SAC[15] | ||
| Bombing | 4 | 20 | 1973 Algerian consulate bombing in Marseille Bomb attack against the Algerian consulate in Marseille by the far-right Charles Martel Group. | ||
| Bombing | 0 | 12 | Bomb attack against the Spanish consulate in Toulouse by Revolutionary Internationalist Action Groups (GARI). | ||
| Bombing | 2 | 34 | Grenade attack on the Drugstore Saint-Germain-des-Prés, allegedly by Carlos the Jackal.[16] | ||
| – | RPG attack | 0 | 24 | Two failed rocket propelled grenade attacks on El Al airplanes at Orly Airport by Carlos the Jackal and Black September.[17] | |
| Bombing | 1 | 6 | Bomb attack in the Gare de l'Est, Paris. | ||
| Hostage taking | 1 | 2 | Hostage taking at the Iraqi embassy in Paris, carried out by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). | ||
| 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. | ||
| 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. | ||
| 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. | ||
| Shooting | 4 | 5 | Three terrorists open fire on El Al passengers in the departure lounge of Orly Airport south of Paris. | ||
| 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. | ||
| 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. | ||
| Bombing | 1 | 25 | A bomb attack kills one at the Bazar de l'Hôtel de Ville in Paris. Nobody claimed responsibility. | ||
| Bombing | 0 | 32 | Bomb attack against a university restaurant in a Jewish student hostel in Paris claimed by an Anti-Zionist group. | ||
| 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. | ||
| Shooting | 1 | 0 | Assassination of Turkish attaché for tourism in France, Yılmaz Çolpan on the Champs Elysées by the JCAG. | ||
| Shooting | 1 | 0 | Assassination of the director of the Palestinian library-shop in Paris, Yusef Mubarak, by the Abu Nidal Organization. | ||
| Bombing | 1 | 8 | Bomb attack against the Syrian Embassy in Paris. | ||
| Bombing | 0 | 12 | Bomb attack in the west terminal of Orly Airport, claimed by the far-left group Action directe. | ||
| Shooting | 1 | 0 | Assassination of former Prime Minister of Syria, Salah al-Bitar in his newspaper office in Paris. | ||
| Shooting | 2 | 11 | 1980 Turkish Consulate attack in Lyon, carried out by the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA). | ||
| Bombing | 4 | 46 | 1980 Paris synagogue bombing against the synagogue of the French Israeli Liberal Union on rue Copernic, Paris. | ||
| 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. | ||
| Bombing | 1 | 8 | Bomb attack at Ajaccio airport shortly after the arrival of French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. | ||
| Bombing | 0 | 15 | Bomb attack by a Palestinian group in the Intercontinental Hotel in Paris. | ||
| – | Hostage taking | 1 | 2 | 1981 Turkish consulate attack in Paris, carried out by ASALA. | |
| Shooting | 1 | 0 | Assassination of the United States Assistant Army Attaché (Charles R. Ray), carried out by the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Faction. | ||
| Bombing | 5 | 29 | 1982 Capitole bombing Bomb attack against the "Capitole" train between Paris and Toulouse, attributed to Carlos the Jackal. | ||
| Shooting | 1 | 0 | Assassination of an Israeli embassy advisor (Yaacov Barsimentov) in Paris, carried out by the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Faction. | ||
| 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. | ||
| Bombing | 0 | 15 | Bomb attack in a terrace café on the Place Saint-Michel in Paris, carried out by ASALA. | ||
| Shooting | 6 | 22 | Goldenberg restaurant attack on the Rue des Rosiers in Paris, attributed to the Abu Nidal Organization (ANO). | ||
| 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.[18] | ||
| Bombing | 1 | 4 | Bomb attack in an office of the travel agency Marmara in Paris, carried out by ASALA. | ||
| Bombing | 8 | 56 | 1983 Orly Airport attack, carried out by ASALA. | ||
| Bombing | 1 | 26 | 1983 Marseille exhibition bombing: Bomb attack during the Marseille International Fair Trade. Action directe, FARL, ASALA and Commando Delta claimed responsibility. | ||
| Bombing | 0 | 12 | Grand Véfour restaurant bombing Bombing of an upmarket restaurant in Paris. | ||
| 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. | ||
| Bombing | 0 | 13 | Alfortville Armenian Genocide Memorial bombings | ||
| 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. | ||
| 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.'[19] | |
| Bombing | 0 | 6 | Bombing of the European Space Agency headquarters in Paris, by Action directe. | ||
| Shooting | 2 | 5 | 1984 Châteaubriant shooting A far-right extremist killed two Turkish workers and wounded five others.[20] | ||
| Shooting | 1 | 0 | Assassination of René Audran, senior official of the French Ministry of Defence, by Action directe. | ||
| Bombing | 1 | 14 | February 1985 Paris bombing Bomb attack against the Marks & Spencer store in boulevard Haussmann, ordered by the 15 May Organization.[21] [22] | ||
| Bombing | 0 | 18 | Rivoli Beaubourg cinema bombing Bomb attack against the Rivoli Beaubourg cinema in Paris during a Jewish film festival.[23] | ||
| 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). | ||
| Bombing | 0 | 43 | Double bomb attack against the Printemps Haussmann store in Paris, attributed to the Hezbollah. | ||
| – | 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. | |
| Bombing | 2 | 29 | Bomb attack against the Point Show gallery on the Champs-Élysées by the CSPPA and Hezbollah. | ||
| Bombing | 1 | 21 | 1986 Paris police station attack Bombing of the Brigade de répression du banditisme office in Paris, by Action directe. | ||
| – | 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. | |
| Bombing | 7 | 55 | Bomb attack against the Tati store on rue de Rennes in Paris, attributed to the CSPPA and Hezbollah. | ||
| Shooting | 1 | 0 | Assassination of Georges Besse, CEO of Renault, by Action directe. | ||
| 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. | ||
| Hijacking | 4 (+3) | 25 | Hijacking of Air France Flight 8969 by members of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA). | ||
| – | Bombings | 8 | 140+ | 1995 Paris Métro and RER bombings, 8 bomb attacks carried out by the Armed Islamic Group. | |
| 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. | ||
| Shooting | 1 | 0 | Assassination of Claude Érignac, prefect of Corsica, by Corsican nationalists. | ||
| 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.[24] | ||
| Bombing | 1 | 0 | Bomb attack against a branch of McDonald's in Quévert, Brittany, attributed to extreme Breton nationalists. |
| Date | Type | Dead | Injured | Location and description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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). | ||
| Bombing | 0 | 10 | Bomb attack against the Indonesian Embassy in Paris, claimed by the [25] | ||
| Shooting | 2 | 0 | Killing of two members of the Spanish Civil Guard carrying out surveillance against ETA members in Capbreton, Landes. | ||
| 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.[26] | ||
| – | 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. | |
| 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.[27] 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.[28] [29] | |
| Stabbing | 0 | 1 | 2013 La Défense attack by an Islamist knifeman against a French soldier in the Paris suburb of La Défense. | ||
| 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. | ||
| – | 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. 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. | |
| 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). | ||
| 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.[30] | ||
| 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. | ||
| 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.[31] | ||
| – | 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'".[32] | |
| style=white-space:nowrap | 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.[33] | |
| 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, were found on the attacker. | ||
| 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. | ||
| style=white-space:nowrap | 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. | |
| 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. | ||
| 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.[34] | ||
| 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.[35] | ||
| 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.[36] | ||
| Shooting | 1 (+1) | 3 | April 2017 Champs-Élysées attack. An Islamist opened fire on police officers on the Champs-Élysées. ISIS claimed responsibility.[37] [38] [39] | ||
| 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.[40] | ||
| 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.[41] | ||
| 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.[42] | ||
| 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.[43] | ||
| 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.[44] | ||
| 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.[45] | ||
| 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.[46] [47] | ||
| 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. | ||
| 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.[48] [49] | ||
| 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. | ||
| 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.[50] | ||
| 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."[51] [52] The attacker had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.[53] | ||
| 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.[54] | ||
| 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. | ||
| 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.[55] | ||
| Stabbing | 0 | 1 | In Metz, a police officer was injured when stabbed by an Islamic State sympathiser. | ||
| 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.[56] | ||
| 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.[57] | ||
| 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.[58] | ||
| Beheading | 1 (+1) | 0 | A Chechen refugee beheaded Samuel Paty in Éragny-sur-Oise,[59] 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.[60] | ||
| Stabbing | 3 | 0 | 2020 Nice stabbing, 3 were killed in Notre-Dame de Nice.[61] | ||
| 31 October 2020 | Shooting | 0 | 1 | A Greek Orthodox priest was seriously wounded when an assailant shot at him in Lyon.[62] | |
| 17 March 2021 | Stabbing | 0 | 1 | An elderly man standing outside a Church had his throat slit by a knife wielding assailant.[63] | |
| 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.[64] [65] | |
| 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.[66] [67] [68] [69] | |
| 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.[70] | ||
| 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.[71] 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.[72] The shooting sparked large protests.[73] [74] | |
| 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.[75] |
| +Terrorist incidents in France since 1970[76] [77] | 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 |