1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites

France attacks: a timeline

July 15, 2016

The attack in Nice during Bastille Day festivities is the latest in a string of deadly attacks targeting civilians. Here is a timeline of recent mass attacks - including those foiled - on French soil.

https://p.dw.com/p/1JPJ3
Frankreich Polizei vor dem Eiffelturm
Image: Reuters/Y. Hermann

11-12 March 2012:Toulouse and Montauban shootings. Mohammed Merah, a 23-year-old Frenchman of Algerian descent, murders three French paratroopers, a Rabbi and three schoolchildren over a period of 11 days in Toulouse and Montauban. Merah - who acquaintances said suffered psychological problems - had said he was angry about the war in Afghanistan. He was killed by a police sniper.

23 May 2013: La Defense attack. A French soldier - stationed on the street following the Toulouse and Montauan killings - is stabbed by 22-year-old Alexandre Dhaussy. He makes rambling statements and it is later believed to be a copycat crime based on the stabbing murder of a British soldier Dhaussy is later ruled criminally insane and placed in a psychiatric ward.

20 December 2014: Tours police station stabbings. Knife-wielding Bertrand Nzohabonayo, 20, attacks a police station yelling "Allahu Akbar!" He was shot dead after wounding three police officers.

21 December 2014:Dijon attack. A deranged 40-year-old man drives into a crowd, running down 11 pedestrians in the city of Dijon. Authorities rule the man has severe psychiatric problems and had converted to Islam just days before the attack.

22 December 2014:Nantes attack. A person is killed and nine others injured as yet another man drives his car through a crowded street, this time in Nantes. The unidentified driver makes incoherent statements to police.

France: Democracy in Jeopardy

7-9 January 2015:Charlie Hebdo attacks. Brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi - Islamist gunmen tied to al Qaeda in Yemen - attack the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. A third associate, Amedy Coulibaly, takes hostages at a kosher supermarket. By the end of the day 20 people are dead.

3 February 2015:Jewish community center attack in Nice. Three soldiers guarding a Jewish community center in Nice are slightly wounded after 30-year-old Moussa Coulibaly slashes them with a 20-centimeter (7.8-inch) knife.

19 April 2015:Foiled Christian church plot. A woman is killed after being carjacked by a 24-year-old Algerian student outside Paris. The man accidentally shoots himself in the leg and is captured. Police find evidence he was in touch with militants in Syria who had been helping him plan an attack on two Christian churches in Paris.

26 June 2015:Decapitation attack near Grenoble. Yassin Sahli, 35, delivery driver rams his van into an industrial plant in a failed attempt to blow up the facility. Authorities find the decapitated head of the man's 54-year-old supervisor with scrawled jihadi slogans near the wreck. Sahli commits suicide in prison.

21 August 2015:Thalys train attack. Four people are hurt in an attempted mass shooting aboard an international Paris-bound train. Ayoub Khazzani, a 25-year-old Moroccan national, is arrested after being overpowered by passengers.

13-14 November 2015:Paris attacks. In the single deadliest attack in modern French history, gunmen open fire inside a crowded rock concert, several cafes and detonate three suicide vests outside a Germany-France soccer match. In all, 130 people are killed and more than 350 wounded.

Paris - Eagles of Death Metal Bataclan
A ssports stadium, rock concert and cafes were targeted by suicide bombers and gunmen on November 13, 2015. The attacks killed 130 people and terrified Europe.Image: picture-alliance/dpa

1 January 2016:Valence mosque attack. A 29-year-old Frenchman of Tunisian origin rams his car into a group of soldiers guarding a mosque in Valence. One of the soldiers and a 72-year-old bystander, who had come to pray, are injured.

7 January 2016:Paris police station attack. On the anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo attacks, a man carrying an "Islamic State" flag storms a police station in suburban Paris with a meat cleaver yelling "Allahu Akbar!" He is killed by police. German police later said the assailant had a criminal history and had been living under several aliases.

13 June 2016:Magananville stabbings. 25-year-old Larossi Abballa, a Frenchman of Moroccan descent, attacks a police commander and his wife in their home in Magnanville outside Paris. The assailant then livestreams video swearing allegiance to the self-styled "Islamic State" before being killed by French commandos. The slain couple's 3-year-old child is found alive inside the house.

14 July 2016:Bastille Day attack in Nice. At least 84 people are killed and 28 critically injured after a man drives a heavy truck two kilometers through a crowd watching Bastille Day fireworks in Nice. The man - identified only as a 31-year-old Frenchman of Tunisian origin - is killed in a shootout with police.

jar/sms (AP, AFP, Reuters, dpa)