Portugal: two dead in the attack on a Muslim center in Lisbon


Europe 1 with AFP
modified to

2:03 p.m., March 28, 2023

Two people were killed Tuesday in a stabbing attack against a Muslim center in Lisbon, announced the Portuguese police, who neutralized the assailant with a firearm.

Two people were killed Tuesday in a stabbing attack against a Muslim center in Lisbon, announced the Portuguese police, who neutralized the assailant with a firearm. “The attack left several injured and, for the moment, two dead,” police said in a statement, adding that the alleged perpetrator of the attack had been arrested after being injured.

The man, who committed the attack with “a large knife”, is hospitalized in a hospital in the Portuguese capital, authorities added.

The attack took place near the Ismaili Center in Lisbon

This community of Shia Ismaili Muslims has established its world headquarters in Lisbon and its spiritual leader, the Aga Khan, obtained Portuguese nationality in 2019. The Ismaili Muslims, a Shia community of 15 million people spread over around 30 countries, have approximately 7,000 members in Portugal.

“I express my solidarity and my condolences towards the victims and the Ismaili community”, reacted the Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa in front of the press, adding that it was “premature to make any interpretation on the motivations of this criminal act”. .

The hypothesis of a terrorist attack mentioned by the local media was therefore not confirmed at this stage. The last attack perpetrated on Portuguese soil dates back to July 27, 1983, when an armed group made up of five Armenians attacked the Turkish embassy in Lisbon, causing the death of two people. The assailants had perished in the attack.



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