Recent terror attack incidents in France

France has been scarred by a litany of terror inducing attacks in recent times. 

While some of the attacks have been carried out of terror organisations such as Islamic State, there have been incidents carried out by rogue individuals linked to extremist movements. 

France has had at least five incidents of attacks this year alone.

Here is a list of terror incidents that took place in the European country in recent times:

29 October, 2020

An attacker with a knife killed two people and wounded several others at a church in Nice. 

According to Reuters reports, the attacker shouted "Allahu Akbar" and beheaded a woman and killed two other people.

Mayor of the Mediterranean city described it as an act of terrorism. 

A man waving a gun was shot dead by police in a separate incident.

16 October, 2020

A 47-year old school teacher named Samuel Paty was killed by an 18-year-old man of Chechen origin. 

Prosecutors said the attacker, shot dead by police soon after the incident, wanted to punish the teacher for showing his pupils cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in a civics class on freedom of expression earlier that month. Paty's attacker said he wanted to punish him for showing pupils cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in a civics lesson.

25 September, 2020

Two people were stabbed and wounded in Paris near the former offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine, where Islamist militants carried out a deadly attack in 2015. 

A man originally from Pakistan was arrested over the attack.

28 April, 2020

A car rammed two police motorcyclists in a Paris suburb.  

According to the French anti-terrorism prosecutor, the driver who rammed his car into two police motorcyclists in a Paris suburb had pledged allegiance to Islamic State.

3 February, 2020

Police shot and wounded a man armed with a knife after he attacked officers inside a police barracks in eastern.

3 October, 2019

A 45-year-old IT specialist named Mickael Harpon, who had security clearance to work in the Paris police headquarters, killed three police officers and one civilian employee before being shot dead by police. 

He had converted to Islam about 10 years earlier.

23 March, 2018

A gunman killed three people in southwestern France after holding up a car, firing on police and taking hostages in a supermarket, screaming "Allahu Akbar". 

French security forces had stormed the building and killed the attacker.

26 July 26, 2016

In a church in northern France, two attackers killed a priest and seriously wound another hostage.

The attackers were shot dead by the French police. 

Francois Hollande, who was France's president at the time, said the two hostage-takers had pledged allegiance to Islamic State.

14 July, 2016

A truck rammed into a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in the French city of Nice. The armed driver also fired shots, before being killed by police. 

The incident killed 86 people and injured scores more. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack.

A Tunisian-born French national was identified as the attacker.

 14 June, 2016 

A Frenchman of Moroccan origin stabbed a police commander to death outside his home in a Paris suburb and kills his partner, who also worked for the police. 

The attacker told police negotiators during a siege that he was answering an appeal by Islamic State.

13 November, 2015

Paris was rocked by multiple, near simultaneous gun-and-bomb attacks on entertainment sites around the city, in which 130 people were killed and 368 are wounded. 

Islamic State says it was responsible for the attacks. 

Two of the 10 known perpetrators were Belgian citizens and three others were French.

7-9 January, 2015

Two Islamist militants broke into an editorial meeting of satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo on 7 January and started shooting, killing 12 people. 

Another militant killed a policewoman the next day and took hostages at a supermarket on 9 January, killing four before police shoot him dead.