‘Mentally unstable’ person attacks Italian tourists with a knife in Morocco
Two Italian tourists were slightly injured after being attacked with a bladed weapon on Thursday in the city of Fez in northern Morocco.
The suspected attacker showed signs of “mental instability,” according to local media reports citing a security source.
The news website “Le360” reported that the police in Fez arrested an individual “in an abnormal state, displaying signs of mental instability” on Thursday afternoon on suspicion of involvement in a case related to assault and injury with a bladed weapon. The suspect is 59 years old.
This arrest came after the “suspect unexpectedly attacked an Italian couple outside the city’s tourist route and physically assaulted them with a knife,” as stated in the report, citing other local news sites that quoted a security source.
The two victims suffered “minor injuries to the arm and one of the fingers,” without any apparent motive for the assault.
It was explained that “investigation procedures revealed that the suspect had been receiving mental and psychological treatment since 2013,” and his “last rehabilitation process dates back to September 19 of the past year.”
A judicial investigation has been opened under the supervision of the public prosecutor’s office, “to uncover all the circumstances and backgrounds of this case.”
In a similar incident at the beginning of 2022, a 79-year-old French tourist was killed after being attacked with a bladed weapon in a market near the city of Agadir in the south of the country.
The public prosecutor’s office entrusted the investigation to the anti-terrorism police, before the court decided to place the perpetrator in a psychiatric hospital, ruling out any terrorist motive behind the crime.
