On Wednesday, in Paris, six French soldiers were injured after a man deliberately drove his car at them. Police later arrested a suspect, who was shot by the police as he was being apprehended. While authorities are still trying to piece together the motive and discover more about the seriously wounded suspect, it would appear to have all the hallmarks and elements of a terrorist attack, even if the security forces have yet to determine if he was indeed politically or ideologically motivated. If it is, it would be the first terror attack since new French President Emmanuel Macron took office at the start of this summer.
Ever since the horrific events in Paris 20 months ago, along with the Nice seafront atrocity, French citizens have endured a virtual state of emergency, with heavily armed special security teams patrolling the streets, ensuring that their very presence deters any would-be terrorist from their evil actions.
With Macron now in the Elysee Palace, that state of siege appeared to have been lifted, a respite after everything endured by the weary and wary citizenry.
Wednesday morning’s incident serves as a sad and timely reminder that those who have evil in their hearts and are mindful of spreading fear and terror can strike at any time. In effect, there is little that can be done to prevent every such attack. Intelligence and surveillance go only so far, and so too do pronounced security deployments in public areas, and programmes to report extremists.
What recent events have shown in the United Kingdom and France is that everyone needs to remain vigilant and on the guard against these perpetrators.
